JIRIKINDING: In an unexpected development, miscreants made away with a pickup truck used by the forest department at night. The incident took place in the Lamarang locality of Jirikinging in the Karbi Anglong district of the state of Assam.
According to reports, the forest officials of the region used a Mahindra Bolero Pickup vehicle bearing registration number ML 04 D 1683 for various purposes. And unidentified miscreants stole this vehicle in the dead of the night. The forest officials had mentioned that the suspects of the incident might belong to neighbouring Meghalaya as the incident took place when the team was going to seize a vehicle from Meghalaya loaded with illegally fallen timber.
It is noteworthy that the particular vehicle was seized by the department in the year 2021 and loaded with timber. And since no one had come to claim the vehicle in the past, the forest department continued to use the vehicles afterwards, also compensating for the lack of any vehicles in the department.
Meanwhile, the officials brought the seized truck bearing registrations ML 04 8499 to the office of the forest department in Kheroni and started the investigation. A few days back, on July 14, the officials of the same forest division were able to confiscate another truck bearing registration number ML 04 B0565 with a large amount of illegally felled timber and the investigation is underway to trace the culprits.
Previously the forest department officials undertook an operation in the Kheroni forest area which comes under the West Karbi Anglong district of the state. During this operation, the officials came across a gang involved in the illegal felling of trees in the forest region on Monday night. The team had to chase down the vehicle as they tried to flee from the forest guards. They were finally able to apprehend the vehicle but the driver and helper of the vehicle were able to flee into the forest. The market value of the seized timber is said to be around Rs 70000 to 80000. Meanwhile, the team was able to seize a Tata pickup truck bearing registration number AS 02 BC 8473 with the confiscated timber on it.
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