In the case of the high profile group including JCT Mills chairman Sameer Thapar and 15 others trespassing and violating other environmental norms in protected forest area on new year’s eve, the high court of Uttarkhand in Nainital has rejected an appeal for early hearing of their bail application submitted in the high court.
The appeal for early hearing on the bail application was rejected by the single bench of the High court on Wednesday, in what may be seen by some as another set-back to the ‘high-profile’ group accused of blatant violation of various rules.
It will be recalled that on December 31, 2016, the police had received information about some persons dressed in army-like clothes with automatic weapons having entered the Kholhuchaud forest rest house located in the lansdowne forest division. The Pauri senior superintendent of police Mukhtar Mohsin formed a police team which reached the forest rest house at Kolhuchaud to find that tents had been pegged up on the premises of the forest rest house.
On being asked to show the necessary documents for staying at the forest rest house and entering a reserved forest area, the group showed the documentation stating that 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. The case became more serious after the police found 171 bottles of liquor sans license, a German-made 300 bore rifle with 23 live rounds apart from live rounds of 375 bore recovered from a member of the group.
The police booked a case under Arms Act with further probing resulting in the discovery of packets containing different types of meats both raw and cooked, which were then sealed and sent for laboratory analysis. The 16 persons arrested by the police including industrialist Thapar, hail from different towns including New Delhi, Punjab, Haryana, Bihar and Chandigarh.