Probe begins, BSF pleads ‘innocence’
TURA: The top brass of the BSF claims innocence, its field officer refuses to cooperate with the investigation while their juniors, barring a few, feign ignorance about the whole issue of illegal tree felling inside Baghmara reserve forest that has snowballed into a major controversy implicating the country’s border guards of disreputable actions.
A magisterial probe ordered into the June 19 seizure of eight mature sal logs that were freshly felled allegedly by BSF personnel inside the reserve forest have indicated that the force personnel undertook the work at the behest of their seniors.
The summons for appearance before a magistrate that was slapped on the BSF personnel deployed in Baghmara border outpost who allegedly committed the crime is being dragged by the BSF.
As many as thirteen BSF personnel, including its Assistant Commandant in-charge of the sector, were asked to appear before the magistrate but only five junior constables turned up on Thursday. The Assistant Commandant allegedly refused to comply with the summons giving one excuse to another.
Among the five whose statements were taken, three spoke on the same lines about entering the forest to collect firewood. Only two others mentioned that they were asked to enter the forest ostensibly to fell trees.
One of the forest officials who was at the spot of the crime on June 19 pointed out that there was no doubt rampant felling of trees was taking place.
“A day earlier the same BSF team felled as many as seven large sal trees. The next day we caught them in the act after they had felled another eight logs and was still in the process of continuing the destruction when we arrived,” revealed IR Sangma, Reserve Forest Officer.
Giving details of the story he said that there were as many as 16 personnel at the time and on seeing the forest department party most of them fled. They were able to round up only six of the BSF personnel who later escaped with the truck after dumping the logs when the forest personnel went to inspect the stumps of the trees felled.
The magistrate probing the incident has also visited the site of the illegal felling and witnessed the destruction, it was reported.
Despite the mounting circumstantial evidence of involvement by BSF personnel, its top brass continues to sweep the issue under the carpet.
The Public Relations Officer (PRO) of the BSF Frontier Headquarters in Shillong issued a strong rebuttal to the media reports on the Baghmara incident. The force termed the reports as false and misleading passing the buck on the timber mafia. The statement further added that no hasty conclusion ought to be drawn from the photographs published in various papers alleging involvement of BSF in cutting timber.
On the sidelines of the report, the BSF did mention that an enquiry has been ordered to investigate into the allegations and take appropriate action if anyone is found guilty. Given the strong denial from higher ups of the force into the timber felling episode it appears unlikely any major head will roll in the coming weeks.