Madhesh Province
Arrest warrants issued against mayor, ward chief for destroying forestlands
The Division Forest Office in Rajbiraj has issued arrest warrants against the mayor and the ward chair of Saptakoshi Municipality on the charge of ‘destroying forest and forestlands’.Abdhesh Kumar Jha
The Division Forest Office in Rajbiraj has issued arrest warrants against the mayor and the ward chair of Saptakoshi Municipality on the charge of ‘destroying forest and forestlands’.
With the consent of the Saptari District Court, the forest office issued the warrants against Mayor Uttam Kumar Sharma, Ward Chairman Narayan Kumar Acharya and two other locals Durga Phuyal and Tularam Luitel.
Dhirendra Singh, chief at the forest office, said the arrest warrants were issued for their alleged involvement in the construction of an irrigation canal by destroying a national forest.
“We repeatedly wrote to them to halt the construction process. We issued the arrest warrants with the consent of the court after they turned down our request,” said Singh.
Under the prevailing legal provisions, if found guilty, they will be sentenced up to one year in prison and fined up to Rs10,000. The accused mayor and ward chairman were not available for comment.
It was the second time that arrest warrant has been issued against Acharya. A warrant was issued against him six months ago as his tractor was found being used in extracting sand and aggregates from the Amaha stream illegally. Acharya, his son Sushil and a large number of locals had gathered and freed the seized tractor. The forest office has not been able to arrest Acharya and his son so far despite various arrest warrants issued against them. The forest office has been accusing police for the latter’s indifference to detain the accused.