Jammu, September 12
The multi-crore timber scam took a new turn today when the Jammu and Kashmir High Court, while taking a serious view that the crime branch is not making any headway with the investigation, ordered the CBI to probe in this regard.
A Division Bench of the court, comprising Mr Justice V.K. Jhanji and Mr Justice Y.P. Nargotra, ordered the CBI to register a fresh FIR and submit the status report of the investigation within four months. However, the crime branch of the state police would continue with the investigation until the CBI started a fresh probe.
The case had come in the high court after a public interest litigation (PIL) pointed out the supply of substandard timber to various defence establishments by officers of the Forest Department and private timber traders. The crime branch had recently seized about 5,000 substandard sleepers that were to be supplied to various ordinance depots of the Defence Ministry and the railways.
Mr Shakeel Ahmed, a local lawyer, who appeared in the court on behalf of the litigant, complained that the investigation was being conducted at a snail’s pace by the crime branch and top officers of the forest department were not cooperating in the matter.
The high court came down heavily on the Forest Department for trying to shield the accused. The court ordered the department to take immediate steps to enable the high-level committee to inspect the seized timber within seven days.
The court expressed displeasure over the slow speed of investigation by the crime branch and observed that except for writing letters to various departments the police had done nothing. Not a single arrest has been made so far although the FIR was registered on July 1.
The Forest Department had submitted details of payments amounting to Rs 80 crore made by it to various private timber traders from December 12, 1996, onwards when the Supreme Court had banned private trading in timber.
