VIJAY DEO JHA
Ranchi, June 21: Chief Minister Hemant Soren on Tuesday ordered a CID inquiry into the large-scale illegal felling of forest trees at Kundri forest under Panki police station of Palamu district.
An FIR 07/2022 was lodged in this regard in January this year by the assistant forest conservator Ram Surat Prasad. The FIR was lodged against forest officer Jitendra Kumar Hajra, ranger Maharaj Singh and forest guard Mohafiz Ansari. They are accused of having entered into a conspiracy with timber mafias and felling a large number of trees in the four km radius of the forest. They were illegally felling trees during Covid -19 pandemic in 2020.
The matter was exposed on April 27, 2020 when the police caught a large number of tractors with wooden logs. Later on, the forest department carried out an internal inquiry and found involvement of these three named accused.
The chief minister a few days back also ordered to remove all saw mills situated within five km radius of the forest.
