KOCHI: The vigilance and anti-corruption bureau has launched a probe into forest department officials misappropriating funds meant for feed procurement by manipulating records related to the number of deer at the Kodanad mini zoo. A case has been registered against five forest officials who worked at the zoo between 2020 and 2022.
Finding themselves at the wrong end of the vigilance case are A S Vinayan, a former section officer with the Kodanad Research Range, former forest beat officers Haseena T A and C R Aliyar, and zookeepers Varghese and Saji Gopinath, who are temporary staff. The forest department runs a mini-zoo named Abhayaranyam at Kaprikkad in Kodanad where visitors can watch deer and elephants kept in their enclosures.
The allegation against the officials is that they allegedly hiked the number of deer at the zoo and later procured a large quantity of feed.
“An internal probe by the forest department revealed that the number of deer was much lower than what was shown in the manipulated records. The documents were forged to show that feed worth Rs 30.9 lakh was procured additionally for animals that never existed at the place from 2020 to 2022. The exact loss incurred by the state exchequer has to be verified,” a vigilance officer said.The case was registered following a forest department recommendation. The charges against the accused officials include criminal breach of trust, forgery, conspiracy, and criminal misconduct by public servants.
The probe is in the initial stage, with the case registered last week, said a vigilance officer. “We are checking for the involvement of more officials and outsiders in the case, and the records recovered from the mini zoo are being verified,” the officer said.