The Uttarakhand High Court is hearing a petition challenging the sanction for prosecution against the former Corbett National Park director. The court has asked the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the state government to file their responses by October 28.
A single bench of Justice Ashish Naithani issued these directions while hearing the petition filed by Rahul, an Indian Forest Service officer, on Friday.
During the hearing, the petitioner said the CBI is probing a case of alleged illegal construction and illegal logging in the Kalagarh Tiger Reserve's Pakharo area, which was done without government permission.
As per the petition, the CBI had filed a chargesheet in the case. This led to the sanction for prosecution against certain officials on September 4. However, the then director, Rahul, was not included in that chargesheet.
Later, the Supreme Court reprimanded the state government for not granting sanction to prosecute Rahul. Following this, the state government approved prosecution against him as well.
The petitioner told the high court that the sanction granted to prosecute him was not legally valid. He also argued that the state government often orders probe “solely based on newspaper reports” even while the investigation is still incomplete. He claimed the allegations against him are false.
The court has scheduled the next hearing in the case for October 28.
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