Forest officer in Maneka's line of fire shifted

Forest officer in Maneka's line of fire shifted
AMIT SHARMA

LUCKNOW, MARCH 3: Maneka Gandhi seems to have had the last laugh in the recent row involving her and the Pilibhit Divisional Forest Officer (DFO). On Saturday, Biswajeet Bannerjee was transferred to Allahabad and replaced by K.D. Thomas. The Minister for Social Justice and Empowerment had been clamouring for Banerjee's head for long, alleging he had indulged in corrupt practices and amassed wealth disproportionate to his income.

``I had written to the state government to request a CBI probe againstthe officer and had been asking for his removal for the last one year because he is incompetent and perhaps in league with poachers,'' Maneka had claimed in a letter to The Indian Express.

However, the DFO has a clean chit from his seniors over the allegation of his involvement in corrupt practices. V.K. Diwan, Principal Secretary (Forest), said: ``This is a routine transfer and has not been effected due to pressure from anyone. His involvement in poaching or corrupt practices is also completely ruled out.''

The officer has been in Maneka's line of fire for some time now, but the recent death of a tiger in his range had made the going tougher for him. Maneka claimed the animal was killed after some forest department employees joined hands with poachers. She said she had found the tiger's carcass in a nullah (small stream) and believed it died from a bullet wound. However, the Bareilly-based Indian Veterinary Research Institute, which conducted an autopsy, had ruled out death from a bullet wound in its report.Maneka, though, alleged that the DFO had colluded with doctors and fixed the report.

On his part, Banerjee had told The Indian Express earlier that Maneka had ill-treated him and he was getting threatening calls from her supporters. He had even claimed that he was being victimised because he had launched a campaign against the ``forest mafia'' and freed most of the forest from encroachers. ``The case that I killed the tiger has been cooked up. The autopsy report has confirmed there was no involvement of a human being in his death. I was away on training a week before and after the big cat's death,'' he had said.

Though Maneka denied she had ever ill-treated Banerjee, he later said she summoned him to the Puranpur Sugar Mill guest house on February 17 and humiliated him in front of her supporters. ``She threatened to slap me and lifted her foot twice. I had to move back to avoid being kicked,'' Banerjee had claimed.