Debabrata Mohanty, Bhubaneswar
The Odisha police on Thursday arrested three forest officials for allegedly killing a temporary forest guard, who witnessed the burning of the carcass of an elephant that was poached in the state’s Similipal tiger reserve last December.
According to police, Jenabil ranger in-charge Shiv Shankar Samal, and forest guards Chandrabhanu Behera and Binod Kumar Das, allegedly thrashed and then poisoned 20-year-old Turram Purti after he recorded them burning the carcass of an elephant that had its tusk sawn off and head hacked in December last year. The accused were trying to burn the carcass in order to avoid being reprimanded by senior officials of the reserve for failing to check poaching, police said.
Purti, the tribal protection assistant, recorded the incident on his cellphone and sent the clip to the senior officials in the reserve after which the three accused were suspended.
Karanjia sub-divisional police officer Sudarshan Gangoi said Purty’s wife, in her FIR, alleged that the three accused forced her husband to drink water laced with poison in the hospital after he was admitted following the assault.
“She had alleged that soon after her husband regained consciousness in the hospital, the three officials forcibly gave him poison. We had booked the three under Section 302 of IPC,” said Gangoi.
The three accused had approached the Orissa HC for anticipatory bail but their plea was rejected. “We were waiting for the HC order. Once their petitions were rejected, we arrested them,” said the SDPO.
In 2022, Odisha recorded 12 cases where forest department personnel were allegedly involved in hiding instances of elephant poaching by burning or burying the carcasses. In almost every case, action against the erring officials was initiated on directions of the Orissa high court.