Court issues summons to Samir Thapar and 15 other accused in Kolhu Chaur forest trespass case

DEHRADUN

: The Kotdwar judicial magistrate’s court has issued summons to Delhi industrialist Samir Thapar and 15 others who were arrested on New Year’s eve in

Kolhu Chaur

in

Lansdowne

on charges of trespassing in a forest area and carrying liquor as well as arms along with live cartridges without proper permission and licences. All the 16 accused, who are currently out on bail, have been asked to be present in the court on May 15.

The court issued the summons after a chargesheet was filed by Pauri police. “The court has accepted the chargesheet filed by police and issued summons to all accused in the trespassing case. We have formed a team to serve notices to the accused who reside in Delhi and Gurgaon,” senior superintendent of police (SSP) Mukhtar Mohsin told TOI.

The industrialists, including Thapar and Jayant Nanda, have been booked under Section 26 of the Indian Forest Act, sections 25/30 of the Arms Act and section 60 of Excise Act. Upon conviction, the accused could get a maximum punishment of up to two years under the Indian Forest Act.

The SSP said that the summons have been issued under a single case against the accused and fresh summons in other cases were likely to be issued soon. Mohsin said that a police investigation into the case has found negligence on part of officials of Lansdowne forest division and a report has been sent to the forest department in this regard.

Earlier, a probe had found divisional forest officer (DFO) Mayank Shekhar Jha’s complicity in allowing the accused to camp deep inside the forest reserve in violation to the law. The

DFO

had then been suspended. He was, however, reinstated after a month as the state government said that it was found that Jha had not been involved in dereliction of duty.

The accused in the case had remained in Pauri jail for over two weeks before being granted bail by the

Uttarakhand

high court on January 17.
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