Adimali: The Munnar police have registered a case against a CPI local functionary for obstructing the work of forest officials and issuing threats against them.
The spat was caught on video and arose from a dispute over a newly built trench in a tribal settlement. The Forest department had constructed this trench near the bungalow adjacent to the tribal colony at Mankulam Singukudi to prevent the incursion of wild elephants. But the colony residents complained that water getting clogged in the trench during rains might cause landslides.
The incident happened when forest and revenue officials visited the place to look into the complaint as per the directions of the district collector.
“We will tie you up in the middle of the road in Mankulam town and beat you up. This is the local secretary saying. If I want, I can get you shifted in 24 hours. But I won’t do that because you need to be thrashed. Let the panchayat elections get over,” Praveen Jose, the CPI leader told V B Udayasuryan, a forest range officer, and P A Shuhaib, a Divisional Forest Officer (DFO).
Jose is an office-bearer of the Mankulam unit of the Left party.
His outburst reportedly was in response to the claim of forest officials the trench had been constructed in forest land.
"The forest department built the trench after encroaching upon land. The forest officials who came for inspection conducted arrogantly by refusing to sign the joint verification report. I only questioned them on this," he stated.
Jose, however, alleged that the forest department was circulating an edited version of the video.
Udayasuryan who was one of the officers targeted rebutted the politician's claim.
"Jose started threatening us when his false propaganda about forest department’s boundary construction was exposed," Udayasuryan said, adding, "He has been saying that the trench was 10-foot deep and 1.5-km wide. He got angry when the joint verification by the forest and revenue officials found his claims to be false."
There is already a case against Jose on charges of threatening the Anakkulam forest range officer.
Revenue officials ed by Devikulam tehsildar Gigi Kunnappilly and forest officials led by Mankulam DFO later visited the spot on Wednesday.
CPI Idukki district secretary KK Shivaraman said that he has sought an explanation from Jose.
