Three booked for felling tree

After the complaint was registered by Shashikant Bambale,a horticulture supervisor with the garden department of the PMC,the three identified as Shivaji Kachgunde (30),Babu Pathan,both residents of Shivnerinagar in Kondhwa and Raju Talekar. Talekar,sources said,is the son of cop and and lives in Somwar Peth police line. Incidentally,the person who notices the damaged trees and informed the garden department is also a cop. The arrested man,Kachgunde was produced in court which remanded him in police custody till Tuesday.

Samarth police said that the three had felled the fig tree and pruned the branches of a mahogany and two Gulmohar trees to facilitate some maintenance work. On Saturday a senior police inspector with the police station,Sanjay Bhambure,noticed the damaged trees when he was passing through the area,sources revealed. He called up the horticulture supervisor’s office in the garden department and came to know that no permission had been granted for it.

B B Ingale,inspector (crime) with Samarth police station said,“Following this,a case was registered based on Bambale’s complaint. The three have been booked under IPC section 370 for theft and under section 8 and 21 of the Maharashtra (Urban Areas) Preservation of Trees Act.”

He added,“In any civic body,cutting trees without valid reason and prior permission of tree authority is prohibited. We took action because it was illegal.”