The Gurugram police have registered an FIR against M3M builders, including three forest officials, who were allegedly involved in cutting 1,322 fully-grown trees and 921 undersised trees at village Chauma in Gurugram district.
Those who were involved in the case have been identified as Karambir Singh, and senior officials of M3M India private builder and others, Praveen forest guard, forest officer Khazaan Singh and Amardeep range forest officer were also named in the FIR for colluding with the builder. No arrest has been made so far.
According to police, the FIR was registered on the complaint of the Deputy Conservator of Forest Department on March 26. A piece of land at the Chauma village was notified under 4 Punjab land Preservation Act 1990. According to the act, no one can not cut trees without the prior permission from the forest department.
On September 16, the M3M builders had filed an application before the divisional forest office to cut or transplant 20 trees from their site. On January 17 the department had given transplant permission to the builders only for 20 trees. But the builder has cut around 1,322 fully-grown trees and 921 undersised trees illegally at the village.
On receiving information about the illegal felling of trees on February 20 two range officials of the forest department had investigated the matter and they found that M3M builders, forest guard and forest officials illegal involved in the felling of trees. The team also found that forest guard Praveen asked Rs7 lakh for the work but the builder had paid him 3.30 lakh.
“We have registered an FIR under the relevant section of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) including forest Act against the accused. The probe is underway and will arrests the accused persons soon,” said ACP Jai Singh, an investigating officer of the case.