GUWAHATI: Sleuths of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption (VAC) Department in Assam on Thursday arrested Forest Ranger of Jonai Range, Makhan Islam on charges of demanding and accepting bribe of Rs two lakh from complainant, Sandeep Das, owner of a furniture showroom in Jonai town in Dhemaji district of eastern Assam.
The accused Forest Ranger was arrested on Dhemaji-Silapathar road after being caught red handed accepting bribe by the Assam ACB Team led by the Superintendent of Police, Sumeet Sharma.
The complainant Sandip Das, of Jonai, is a proprietor of one wood Furniture Industry in Jonai town, and sells furniture items at his show room in Jonai town. He sometimes brings timbers from Pasighat in Arunachal Pradesh for making furniture items. The Dhemaji Forest Division officials had detained his truck bearing Regd. No. AS-07-C-2996 sometimes back along with the timbers and pulled the vehicle to the Dhemaji DFO office but till date neither copy of seizure list has been issued. Again, recently on 22/02/2020, while he was transporting timbers purchased from Pashighat to Silapathar in a rental truck, with valid documents, one Makhan Islam, a Ranger of forest department at Jonai, detained the truck and brought the same to Jonai Range Office and released the truck without observing any formalities, but did not release the timbers belonging to the complainant.
When the complainant,Sandip Das approached Makhan Islam, the forest Ranger, to get back his truck Regd. No. AS-07-C-2996, which was detained on previous occasion along with the legal timbers seized recently and the documents, the Ranger demanded bribe of Rs. 2,00,000/-, and also threatened the complainant to confiscate his truck and warned him of arrest, if he failed to do so.
The role of the DFO Dhemaji, Safiqur Rehman, in the crime is being investigated and summoned for examination.
The Forester Pradip Das of range forest office, Dhemaji is also being summoned for questioning.
