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Friday, November 4, 2011

FRESH INSTRUCTIONS FOR INVESTIGATION OF FOREST LAND ENCROACHMENT CASES


        OFFFICE OF SUPERINTENDENT OF POLICE KULLU
                                       
SHO PS Kullu, Manali, Bhunter, Banjar,
Anni, Nirmand, Brow.
           

SUB: Final Report in cases of Encroachment on Forest Land
This order is with reference to CrMP(M) No. 1299/2008 titled as Yogendra Singh Vs State of HP. Whereas, Revenue Officials have been written about getting the encroached land demarcated but still the process of demarcation is very slow which is leading to unnecessary delay in preparing the Final Report in FIR registered (More than 1000 in total in Kullu District). And Whereas, Forest Officials have been written about giving the report of loss to flora and fauna and the same is also pending in all the cases. Being a case monitored by Honorable High Court of Himachal Pradesh police is duty bound to finalize these cases without any delay and within the time limit prescribed by Honorable Court. Following will be the further line of action in these cases:
1.   Investigating Officers will immediately visit the spot along with forest officials.
2.   IO will photograph the entire area and hard copies of these photos be formed part of Final Report u/s 173 of CrPC. Before taking the photos IO will set the correct date and time of the camera.
3.   IO will videograph the entire area and speak the details in the mic of the videocamera while recording which include FIR Number, date, under/section and Police Station; type of cultivation on the encroached land; status of built-up structures; inhabitants (persons living on the land); major landmarks closeby e.g. river flowing, buildings, forest area etc; type of fencing etc. All these videos are to be attached with the case file in form of Compact Disc (CD). This will help the Court, prosecution, police, witnesses during trial. Before taking the videos IO will set the correct date and time of the camera.
4.   IO will do measurement of the area based on Spot inspection and with the help of Forest Officials who can identify the area of the forest. On the basis of this measurement IO will prepare a Spot Map of the area mention the dimensions of the side of the encroached land. The unit of measurement will be in meters. This spot map is to be signed by the accompanying forest officials and revenue officials as the case may be.
5.   IO will take a report for the forest officials like Forest Guard, BO, RO etc about the joint inspection of the spot in which they shall mention about the name of forest beat, area, and other identifying details of that piece of forest land which has been encroached.
6.   Statements u/s 161 CrPC of all the police, forest, revenue officials, witnesses who are part of the joint inspection will be recorded by the IO.
7.   Statements u/s 161 CrPC of witnesses of the surrounding about the land use on that piece of land are to be recorded by IO.
8.   IO will procure documents related to ownership of the land i.e. Jamabandi of the land from forest officials which will prove ownership and possession of the forest land by Government.
9.   In cases where IPH, Electricity, Telephone connections have been taken, IO will procure the connection numbers and bills from the encroacher or from the concerned department.
10.                All the documents related to the cases should be properly tagged in the file including – certified copies of the proceedings already under taken by the forest department in the case; copies of correspondence related to these cases by SP Office Kullu; any documents produced by the encroacher in this regard.
11.                As and when the demarcation report by Revenue Officials and Report of Loss to Flora and Fauna by Forest Officials is received it will be presented to the court in the form of supplementary charge-sheet.

                        After complying with the above mentioned instructions and any other as deemed fit by the IO, SHO will prepare Final Report in the case and put up before supervisory officer who shall thereupon see whether the Final Report has been properly made and investigation carried out as instructed. It will be the duty of the concerned SO to see that these instructions are followed. After this first level of scrutiny the case file will be sent to concerned Ld. APP/PP for legal opinion. The case file will then be put in the concerned Court. All cases need to be finalized within one month. Any difficulty in execution of these instruction be immediately be brought to the notice of undersigned.
                                                                                           
SP Kullu
CC:
1.   Addl. Chief Secretary (Forest) to the GoHP for information.
2.   Pr. Secretary (Revenue) to the GoHP for information.
3.   DGP HP for information.
4.   IGP CR for information.
5.   DC Kullu for Information.
6.   Conservator of Forest Kullu for information with request to direct Forest Guards, BO, RO to associate with the police w.r.t to all point numbers except 7 and 9 mentioned above.
7.   Conservator of Forest Rampur for information with request to direct Forest Guards, BO, RO to associate with the police w.r.t to all point numbers except 7 and 9 mentioned above.
8.   ADM Kullu for information with request to direct field functionaries w.r.t. point numbers 6, 8, 11 mentioned above.
9.   DRO Kullu for information with request to direct field functionaries w.r.t. point numbers 6, 8, 11 mentioned above.
10.                ALL Supervisory Officers of Dist. Kullu Police Department for compliance of the instructions mentioned above.

SP Kullu

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