Forest Dept team assaulted, 7 booked

Amritsar, March 30

A team of the Forest Department was allegedly assaulted by several encroachers who illegally chopped trees from forest land in the Dhian Singh Pura area falling under the Ajnala police station here.

The incident occurred on Wednesday afternoon when the team raided the area following a tip-off.

Those booked were identified as Gurmit Singh of Dalla Rajputa village, Dilbagh Singh of Bhindi Saida, Mukhtar Singh, his brother Sarvan Singh, Mukhtar’s son Saba, Santa Singh, and Gurmukh Singh, all residents of Chartewali village. A case under Sections 447, 427, 379, 323, 506, 353, 186, 148 and 149 of the IPC was registered against the suspects. No arrest has been made so far.

Ajnala Forest Range Officer Parkash Singh told the police that on February 17, a complaint was filed against the suspects for allegedly chopping and stealing trees from the forest land and an investigation was currently underway.

He said yesterday around 11am, a team headed by him was on patrol and found that the suspects were illegally chopping the trees and encroaching upon the forest land. He said when his team stopped them from chopping the trees and occupying the land, the suspects started threatening to kill them used offensive language against women staff members and scuffled with them.