The incident took place at Shamli, over 100 km from New Delhi, when a team of revenue officials and policemen went to question a sand mafia for alleged illegal mining of sand near the banks of Yamuna.

During his questioning, his henchmen attacked the team and injured the 'nayab tehsildar' (revenue official), a station house officer (SHO) and a police constable, police said, refusing to disclose the name of the sand mafia.