In the case of industrialist Samir Thapar and 15 others being arrested for violation of environmental laws in the Corbett tiger landscape, the bail application was filed in the court of District and Session Judge at district headquarter Pauri on Wednesday afternoon.
The district and session judge transfered the bail application case to additional district judge court Kotdwar for the hearing with the date for the hearing being set on January 6. Prior to this the court of additional chief judicial magistrate in Kotdwar had rejected the bail pleas of the 16 accused including JCT mills chairman Samir Thapar and managing director of Cargo Motors, Jayant Nanda on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, on the other side, the employees of the office of the lansdowne forest division in Kotdwar boycotted work in support of their demand for cancellation of the suspension of the lansdowne divisional forest officer by the Uttarkhand Government. The staff said they would continue their protest until their demand is met. Some other employees’organisations are also supporting the protesting staff.
It will be recalled that Thapar and 15 others were arrested by the Kotdwar 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 persons caught by the Kotdwar police in Pauri district were produced before the judicial court on Sunday (January 1) 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. Meanwhile, the state government suspended the lansdowne DFO Mayank Shankar Jha in view of the blatant violation of environmental laws at the Kolhuchaud forest rest house. The Kotdwar police had received information about some persons with automatic weapons, dressed in military-like clothing at Kolhuchaud. Acting on this information, the police had raided the site with a total of 171 liquor bottles sans license for the same being found in one of the forest rest house rooms. A German-made 300 bore rifle with 23 live rounds were also recovered from the other room apart from 15 live rounds of 375 bore found on one Arif Hussain. The police action against those considered to be influential and habitual offenders has elicited kudos from wildlife lovers including union minister Maneka Gandhi who wrote to the Pauri senior superintendent of police Mukhtar Mohsin stating “I congratulate you and the government of Uttarakhand for making the choice to protect and serve”. The union minister had expressed happiness at the SSP taking a firm step to end trespassing and poaching in the forests of Uttarakhand. “By your prompt action, you have not only brought habitual offenders to book but also prevented poaching of wildlife,” wrote the union minister. However, not everyone is satisfied with the official consequences of the police action as seen in the case of forest department workers boycotting work.