KALPETTA: Roji Augustine, key accused within the Muttil tree felling case, has alleged that he had given Rs 25 lakh in bribe to forest officers to move the logs. Speaking to a TV information channel on Thursday, he alleged that Rs 10 lakh was given to a divisional forest officer (DFO) in Wayanad, Rs 2 lakh to a different DFO, Rs 5 lakh to a spread officer (RO), Rs 3 lakh to a former RO and the remainder to the workers at two forest places of work.
“I had bribed as a result of there was no different choice to get issues achieved. I had lower 56 rosewood bushes together with 14 from my very own plantation. Nonetheless, the forest personnel seized my logs. I had lower and transported logs with all enough paperwork,” he claimed.
Augustine alleged that the identical forest personnel who seized his logs allowed the slicing of eight rosewood bushes from vested forest at Manikkunnumala and transportation of them with none cross. He alleged that Rs 600 crore value of timber is mendacity in Wayanad unable to be transported. The bushes had been lower as per the order of the principal secretary (income).
When TNIE contacted the forest personnel named by Roji, all of them dismissed the allegations and stated they had been paying the value for upholding legal guidelines. Roji and his brothers, Anto Augustine and Josekutty Augustine, have a doubtful previous in monetary dealings. They had been behind the Mango telephone launch in 2016. Anto and Josekutty had been arrested on February 29, 2016 simply earlier than the launch of the telephone following complaints by Financial institution of Baroda and State Financial institution of Travancore.
