GUJRAT, Feb 16: The provincial chief conservator of the forest department has ordered an inquiry into the Kalra Shisham theft and assigned the task to one of his subordinates, it is learnt here on Thursday.

The timber mafia allegedly being patronized by District Forest Officer Muhammad Nawaz Sandhila, however, has chopped off more Shisham and other trees worth Rs2.5 million from the Kalra level crossing to the village.

The mafia had earlier illegally chopped off more than 1,000 Shisham and other trees worth millions of rupees from the Kathala underpass to a known carpet industry on both sides of the GT Road. The labourers of an influential contractor was caught red-handed by the Gujrat Saddar police and Timber Merchant Association president Saleem Kamboh while cutting the trees near Kathala. The district administration and the police, however, did not take any punitive action against the mafia.

The chief conservator had deputed conservator Syed Ajmal Naqvi as inquiry officer. To save his skin, DFO Sandhila had imposed a fine of Rs240,000 on the contractor before the inquiry officer initiated the probe. The inquiry officer, along with EDO (Agriculture) Shahid Rasheed Awan, had visited the site and confiscated several uprooted trees. The IO submitted before the chief conservator comprehensive probe findings.

Sources quoted the inquiry officer as saying in his findings that the department had given a contract of only 14 trees, but the contractor and his men illegally chopped off Shisham and other trees much more than the requirement near Kathala. The report revealed that DFO Sandhila, the block officer and the guard had shown dereliction of duty.

The IO, alleged sources, favoured the DFO and concealed facts in his probe. They said the DFO had tampered with the official record book but the IO did not mention this malpractice in his findings. They claimed that the official record book of the DFO did not match with the books of the conservator and the chief conservator. The chief had suspended from service the block officer and the guard, besides giving a strict warning to DFO Sandhila for failing to serve as the custodian of government assets.

Meanwhile, the timber mafia with the abetment of DFO Sandhila and area block officer had illegally chopped off Shisham trees worth over Rs1.5 million near Kalra level crossing. The trees were the property of the railway department while the forest department was its custodian.

Sources said the area people had informed the railway police, who reached the spot when the mafia was busy uprooting trees and loading them on donkey carts. But the police took no action and returned after the block officer ‘satisfied’ them.

After receiving the complaint about Shisham theft near Kalra, the chief conservator had ordered a fresh probe and deputed conservator Syed Ajmal Naqvi inquiry officer for the second time.

He would visit the site on Friday (today) to collect evidence, sources said. After two successful strikes, the timber mafia again illegally cut Shisham and other trees worth over Rs2.5 million from Kalra level crossing to Kalra village (forest area).

Sources said the influential DFO, Sandhila, was patronizing the timber mafia operating in the district. They said Sandhila was the forest officer of the district forest department a year ago and was directly under the supervision of EDO (agriculture) Shahid Awan. They developed differences when the latter informed the high-ups about his (Sandhila’s) wrongdoings, they said.

To exact revenge, they said, Sandhila somehow informed the district nazim that Awan had committed gross irregularities in his tenure as EDO. The district nazim called upon the EDO and scrutinized the official record of the last three years, besides reviewing the performance of the department, they said, but did not point out any irregularity found during scrutiny of the department’s record.

Later, Sandhila got himself transferred to the provincial forest department owing to his tussle with the EDO. The two officials, however, had come to terms as EDO Awan was ignoring the wrongdoings of Sandhila. They said some politicians of the ruling PML had been patronizing Sandhila and the timber mafia.

Mr Sandhila denied having any link with the timber mafia. He also expressed ignorance about the timber theft near Kalra.