Tree felling: Govt order violates existing laws, HC lashes out at govt

KOCHI: The High Court has expressed grave concern over the government's order granting permission to cut down trees from assigned land. The court ruled that the order violated existing laws. The court made the remarks while rejecting the anticipatory bail plea of the accused in the Muttil tree felling case.

While observing that the hands of the accused were not clean and that the documents were tampered with, the court added that the village officer acted as per the instructions of the accused. The accused had entered into an agreement with the sellers to give 10,000 cubic meters of rosewood. The court also asked how the accused will manage to arrange these many rosewoods.

The High Court rejected the anticipatory bail applications of Roji Augustine, Anto Augustine, and Jose Kutty Augustine, the accused in the Muttil tree felling case. The accused claimed that they had cut down the tree from the assigned land and that it was not a reserve forest. The accused had also informed the court that the trees were cut down with the permission of the authorities including the forest department