A team of the forest department and Rohtas police carried out an overnight operation on GT Road in Rohtas and seized 35 trucks laden with stone chips and arrested 18 persons on Saturday.

The trucks had loaded the material from Gopibigha and Jamuar localities under jurisdiction of Dehri Town police station of the district. The raid was conducted under the supervision of forester of Rohtas Lalan Mochi.

Mochi said the operation lasted from 11pm to 6am. The seized consignment was to be delivered in Patna and Gaya, Varanasi (UP) and a few places in Jharkhand.

The action against illegal mining in Rohtas followed a tough stance shown by the Supreme Court, which sought a report from the Bihar government on illegal mining going on unabated in Rohtas.

The directive came during hearing of a petition filed by Ghanshyam, father of killed Rohtas divisional forest officer (DFO) Sanjay Singh.

Sanjay was killed by suspected Maoists near Rehal in Rohtas while returning to the district headquarters after an operation on January 15, 2002. The case was later handed over to the CBI for investigation. Altogether 15 persons were arrested by the investigation agency in the case.

Sanjay's father, in his petition to the apex court, however, expressed surprise over illegal mining going on unabated in Rohtas's Karwandhiya area even after 15 years of the murder of his son. The then DFO Singh had taken tough action against the Maoists and tried to contain their activities in the region.

Taking cognizance of the matter, a division bench of justice Madan B Lokur and justice Dipak Gupta has sought a report from the state government by July 18 on illegal mining in Rohtas district. The court also asked the central environment committee to keep an eye on the development in the case.

The directive came during hearing of the case on April 11 this year.

A senior official of the forest department said that the operation against illegal mining would continue in Rohtas-Kaimur region.