The level of wildlife security in the state has once again come under scrutiny after chairman of JCT Mills Samir Thapar and 15 others were arrested by the police while they were partying on the Kolhuchaud forest rest house compound on New Year's eve with two firearms, live rounds, raw and cooked meat on December 31. All the 16 people caught by the Kotdwar police in Pauri district were produced before the judicial court on Sunday evening from where they were sentenced to 14-day judicial custody. The group caught by the police were brought to the Pauri jail on Monday afternoon.
Pauri district senior Superintendent of Police Mukhtar Mohsin said that on December 31, the police had received information about some persons in army-fatigues with automatic weapons having entered the Kholhuchaud forest rest house located in the lansdowne forest division. Acting on the tip-off, the SSP formed a team of officers and 18 police personnel which reached the Kolhuchaud forest rest house.
The police found some persons sitting around fires while others were in the rest house rooms and tents set up on the premises of the forest rest house. When asked to show the valid documents for staying at the forest rest house and entering a reserved forest area, the group showed the papers stating three rooms had been booked in the name of one Mohinder Singh.
However, the group could not provide any explanation regarding the permission for others to stay and the tents to be pitched at the site. The group was booked under sections of the Forest Act for forest trespass with eight of the vehicles they were using also being seized by the police. On searching the rooms, the police found a total of 171 liquor bottles sans license for the same in one of the rooms.
The police were booking Mahinder Singh under the Excise Act when a German-made 300 bore rifle with 23 live rounds was recovered from the other room. Additionally, 15 live rounds of 375 bore were found on one Arif Hussain. The police booked a case under Arms Act. Further, the police also found packets containing different types of raw and some cooked meat which were then sealed and sent for laboratory analysis. The 16 persons arrested by the police including industrialist Thapar, hail from various places including New Delhi, Punjab, Haryana, Bihar and Chandigarh.