Baripada: Jashipur police Thursday nabbed three forest officials for their alleged involvement in the poaching of a tusker and burning of its carcass to destroy evidence in Similipal Tiger Reserve of Mayurbhanj district and the subsequent death of Turam Purty, the lone eyewitness in the case. The accused forest officials — forester Shiba Shankar Samal and forest guards Chandrabhanu Behera and Binod Kumar Das of Jenabil forest range under the South division of Similipal Tiger Reserve — were produced in the court and remanded to judicial custody in Karanjia.
Notably, a tusker was killed in Gurundia forest section under Jenabil forest range of the South forest division of Similipal Tiger Reserve, December 7. The three forest officials had tried to destroy evidence by setting the carcass on fire. They had also dumped the remains of the carcass in a river nearby to cover up the matter.
Locals had informed the senior forest officials that the three accused also abetted the suicide of Turam Purty, a junior-level employee at Similipal Tiger Reserve as they feared that the matter might get disclosed. Purty was the only eyewitness of the crime committed by the forest officials. Fearing action, the three allegedly abused Purty and threatened to put him in jail. Panicked, Purty had consumed poison to end their life. He was rushed to Karanjia government hospital and later shifted to SCB Medical College and Hospital in Cuttack where he succumbed to death during treatment, December 16 last year. His wife Chilam Purty alleged that the three officials had forced her husband to consume poison.
