KOCHI: A road construction work turned into a major tussle between the forest department and a civic body as 13 persons including 11 ward members of Paingottoor panchayat, near Kothamangalam, were slapped with a criminal case by the police. All the accused, however, were, granted anticipatory bail by the additional district sessions court on Thursday.
The incident occurred after the roadwork started at Mullaringad on June 8. PWD had sanctioned `8 crore for the work. A team from the Mullaringad forest section reached the spot and said work cannot be done without the department’s permission.
Later, the forest officials seized the earth mover and took the driver into custody. According to officials of Pothanikkad police station, the issue became severe following a compromise meeting at Chathamattom forest office on June 9. “As per the forest officials’ complaint, other than panchayat members, people of the village also gathered at the forest office. There were heated exchanges between them and the forest officials,” a police official said.
The police registered a case for unlawful assembly, criminal trespass, wrongful confinement, assault to deter public servant’s discharge of duty, theft and destruction of public property. Divisional Forest Officer M V G Kannan said during the road work, damage occurred on the forest land. The l residents were demanding that the earth-moving machine should be released and no case should be registered.
“I told them that the machine will be released after paying the bond amount. After pressuring the pilot of the earth-moving machine, it was driven out of our office. They also caused destruction to our property,” he said.Paingottoor panchayat vice-president Nizar Muhammad said people gathered at the forest office because roadwork was disrupted for three days. He said the forest officials first registered a case for cutting a few bushes which occurred due to earth-moving machine operators’ unawareness of the location.