Mining in elephant corridor: State’s inaction a letdown, says Madras HC
The state, in order to protect corrupt officials, is trying to project that no illegality has taken place and expect the court to believe that nothing unlawful has happened, observed the bench
Representative image
CHENNAI: The Madras High Court expressed its disappointment with the investigation by the special investigation team constituted to nab offenders who illegally mined huge quantities of sand at the elephant corridor and the officials who connived with them, as there has been no progress yet.
The special bench of Justices N Sathish Kumar and D Bharatha Chakravarthy, hearing forest-related cases came down heavily on the State for not conducting the probe as per the court's directive to nab illegal sand miners.
The state, in order to protect corrupt officials, is trying to project that no illegality has taken place and expect the court to believe that nothing unlawful has happened, observed the bench.
Additional Advocate General (AAG) J Ravindran sought the permission to file a petition to review the court order issued on January 10, directing to conduct a discrete inquiry into the assets of the each and every revenue officer -- from village administrative officer, revenue inspector, tahsildar, deputy tahsildars and police officers -- who worked at the elephant corridor in Coimbatore in the past four years.
The AAG also submitted that though the SIT head is on a long leave, the probe is on the right path.
However, the bench refused to accept the submission and observed that no action has been taken so far in compliance with the court order.
The AAG submitted that the state has no intention to stall the investigation and provided all facilities to the SIT to nab the offenders. It was also submitted that some offenders were arrested in this regard and their bank accounts were also freezed.
Recording the submission, the bench allowed the state to move a review petition and posted the matter to April 14.
Previously, the AAG had submitted another petition to review an order putting a cap on the number of tourist vehicles entering the Nilgiris and Kodaikanal.
After perusing the petition, the bench directed the advocate general to appear before the court in this regard and posted the matter for Friday.
