Wayanad: The investigation team submitted the charge sheet in the case of tree felling in Muttil, Wayanad in the year 2020-21. The charge sheet of 84,600-pages was submitted after two years of investigation. The chargesheet was filed by the Special Investigation Team headed by DySP VV Benni in the Sultan Batheri Chief Judicial Magistrate Court. For the first time in India a chargesheet with the results of DNA testing of trees was submitted to the court.
There are 420 witnesses in the charge sheet. There are a total of 12 accused in the case including the Augustine brothers. Roji Augustine, Anto Augustine and Josuti Augustine are the main accused in the case. Muttil South Village former officer K.K. Aji, Special Officer Sindhu and those who helped the tree-cutting gang are also accused in the case. According to the sections in the charge sheet, the accused are likely to get imprisonment up to seven years and also a fine. Along with charges of forgery, destruction of public property and fraud, the accused have also been charged under the Land Conservancy Act for cutting trees reserved for the government.
The investigation revealed that the accused have cut trees worth crores of rupees under the guise of an order issued by the government in 2020. This order allowed cutting down self-cut trees or trees planted by farmers on land acquired after 1964. DNA tests revealed that protected trees that are more than 500 years old were cut and replaced. This is the key evidence in the charge sheet, police said.
The forensic examination conducted in Thiruvananthapuram also revealed that the applications submitted by the accused in the village office on behalf of the land owners were forged. The Enforcement Directorate, police and the revenue department are investigating the accused under the Money Laundering Act.
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