KOZHIKODE: The enquiry conducted by the forest department into the complaints against conservator of forests NT Sajan has indicted the IFS officer of serious wrongdoings, including filing a baseless report to the department that amounted to derailing the investigations into Muttil illegal tree felling case.
The 18-page report of the probe conducted by additional principal chief conservator of forests (APCCF-FL&R) Rajesh Ravindran said that Sajan acted in a ‘highly undesirable, deplorable and grievous manner unbecoming of a civil servant’. It added that Sajan was involved with the prime accused in Muttil case (Augustine brothers) and their accomplices while filing the baseless report on February 15, which, by all indications, point to being written to serve vested interests.
Though the inquiry report filed by APCCF on June 29 recommended immediate major disciplinary action against Sajan, no disciplinary action was taken by the government, except that he was transferred from Kollam to Kozhikode. The delay in taking disciplinary action against the officer has also given rise to charges that the government was shielding him.
The forest department had constituted an enquiry based on complaints by Meppadi forest range officer MK Sameer, who had taken the illegally-felled timber from Muttil into custody, against Sajan that he tried to frame the field staff of Muttil range officer in the felling of trees at Manikunnumala. The enquiry found that the tone and tenor of the report in seeking stringent action against the field staff, alleging their collusion in organizing felling within forest land, was preposterous.
“The contention that the land from where the trees were felled at Manikunnumala is part of vested forests is incorrect and has since been clarified as such in the detailed report of the custodian of vested forests on the matter,” the report said.
“It is clear that NT Sajan IFS had acted in a highly undesirable, deplorable and grievous manner, unbecoming of a civil servant, in submitting his Report dated 15/02/2021 to PCCF (V&FI) virtually derailing the investigations into OR 1/2021 of Meppadi Forest Range and turning the attention on to a subject that was false and baseless. That in so doing he was involved with the prime accused in OR 1/2021 of Meppadi forest range and their accomplices make it even more worse, warranting immediate initiation of disciplinary action for major penalty against him,” stated the enquiry report by Ravindran.
The report also added that Sajan had acted in ways highly unbecoming of a government servant violating the basic tenets and etiquettes expected in his job. “The alacrity with which he had moved about in his purported investigation into felling at Manikunnumala (alleged to be in vested forests), the irrational ways in which he chose to ignore the obvious field realities, his staunch reluctance to consult the revenue and forest authorities for their version on the secret information received by him, the blind reliance and trust he had reposed on the secret information being provided to him by the prime accused in the offences related to rosewood felling in LA patta lands of Wayanad, the frequent contacts he had had with the accused during the period, all point to his unmistakable and deliberate involvement in the issue in a way detrimental to the interests of the department,” the report said.
