State Director General of Police BS Sidhu has appealed to the National Green Tribunal to get his polygraph test and brain mapping done regarding the illegal cutting of trees on a plot of land purchased by him at Veergirwali on Old Mussoorie Road, Dehradun.
He also sought similar tests on forest officers to ascertain the truth. The NGT has set next hearing of this case on August 11.
Sidhu on Tuesday denied his involvement in the cutting of trees on the plot of land at Veergirwali and said that through his advocate, he has requested the NGT to look into two pending matters before pronouncing any judgment on this issue. In one case, the forest department had imposed challan on violators for cutting the trees on the land at Veergirwali while in another case, the police had filed a chargesheet in the lower court against the divisional forest officer Dheeraj Pandey, other forest officials and property dealers for their alleged involvement in this case.
To ascertain the truth in this case, DGP Sidhu appealed the NGT to get his polygraph test and brain mapping conducted.
It should be mentioned here that Sidhu had purchased a piece of land on Old Mussoorie Road in Dehradun which the Forest Department claimed to be forest land. In his complaint, Sidhu alleged that forest officials Dheeraj Pandey, Prasad Saklani, Ved Prakash, Satish Gupta and Veer Chandra were involved in the tree felling in the reserve
forest area.
Moreover, Sidhu had lodged an FIR against Anarwala residents Ved Prakash Mahawar and Satish Gupta, Rajawala resident and forest guard Sri Prasad Saklani, Mussoorie divisional forest officer Dheeraj Pandey under sections 420, 120B, 166, 167, 504 of IPC and 26 of Forest Act in Rajpur Police Station on July 9, 2013. The investigating officer had submitted a charge sheet in the lower court in the third week of June , 2014 and investigation officer had made Sharad Sood, Satish Gupta, Ved Mahawar, Virendra Dutt Joshi, Kuldeep Negi, Jagmohan Rawat, Sri Prasad Saklani and DFO Dheeraj Pandey as accused in this case.
Moreover, Uttarakhand High Court had ordered stay on charge sheet filed by the police in the local court against the forest department officers and sought explanation from state government and police department on this issue. The HC had also asked the State as to why should the case not be investigated by a special investigation team.
A new twist was added to this case when suspended sub-inspector Nirvikar had addressed a Press conference in Dehradun in May accusing the DGP of attempting to influence the police inquiry into the purchase of a forest land by Sidhu.