The Keralam Forest department has embarked on a damage-control exercise in Wayanad after the legal goof-ups in two sensitive forest and wildlife crime cases — the Muttil illegal tree-felling case and the seizure of ivory in the Kurichiyat forest range.
While the chargesheet filed in the tree-felling case, the first one in the 53 cases booked by the Forest department, was rejected last week, the six accused, including a few tribespersons, arrested in an alleged illegal ivory possession case were let off after officials failed to comply with the mandatory procedural safeguards governing arrest and communication of grounds of arrest.
Roji Augustine, managing editor of Reporter TV, is the first accused in the tree-felling case. His brothers, Anto Augustine and Josootty Augustine, are the fourth and fifth accused, respectively, in the case, which pertains to the illegal felling, transport, and sale of 54 rosewood logs measuring 15.426 cubic metres from the Muttil area in south Wayanad in 2021. The accused were booked under the provisions of the Kerala Forest Act, the Kerala Forest Produce Transit Rules, and the Biological Diversity Act.
Of the 53 illegal tree-felling cases booked in the Muttil area, the Augustine brothers were arrayed as accused in 42 cases.
The chargesheet filed against Augustine brothers and others before the Judicial First Class Magistrate Court, Sulthan Bathery, on September 17, 2026, was rejected the other day after some defects were noticed in it.
‘Clerical errors’
The chargesheet was rejected as some “clerical errors” had inadvertently crept into the document. The bench clerk of the court also sought to add an explanation on the delay in filing the chargesheet to the case documents. The chargesheet was resubmitted on Friday (September 25, 2026) after rectifying the errors and adding an explanation regarding the reported delay in filing it, said Forest officials.
Large-scale illegal felling of valuable trees took place across the State following an order issued by the Revenue department on October 24, 2020, which was withdrawn on February 2, 2021. The illegal felling had caused considerable financial loss to the exchequer.
Meanwhile, the Forest authorities have moved a trial court for the re-arrest of the accused in the ivory case, who were released after being arrested on September 22.
The trial court had ordered the release of the arrested, as officials failed to provide the grounds of the arrest to the accused and communicate the details of the arrest and the place where the accused were held to their friends or relatives. The court held that the materials produced before it did not establish due compliance with the grounds of the arrest.
An application seeking permission of the court for re-arresting the accused was filed on Friday. The court was also apprised of the corrective measures initiated in the case, including the replacement of the investigation officer with another one and the decision to provide the erring officials training in Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, said a senior official.
Published – September 26, 2026 07:00 am IST
