Panchkula khair tree thieves back after a year, 20 trunks go missing

PANCHKULA: After a year, a gang of khair-tree thieves has gone active again in the district and stolen more than 20 logs from a panchayat land near Raipur Rani. Police have a registered a case based on a complaint from Dandlaawad village sarpanch Jitender Saini.
The village has a 20-acre panchayat land, where only this medicinal tree is planted. Saini told the cops that the thieves must have come in an SUV (sports utility vehicle) and a heavy loading vehicle on Monday night and cut down more than 20 khair trees, which were now missing from the spot. Saini's statement suggests that "this is not the first incident at this place, and two-to-three more khair trees could be missing, since the count is still on."

The villagers have even named the suspects. The villagers who went to the police with the sarpanch told the cops that Darpur villager Liyakat Ali and Dandlaawad's Jamshad, Ajmal, Sharafat, and Satar could be behind the crime. On the basis of their complaint, cops have registered a case under Sections 379 (theft), 120-B (punishment for theft) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Section 4 (violation of the state government notification) of the Indian Forest Act of 1927 at the Raipur Rani police station and started investigation.

Asistant sub-Inspector (ASI) Mulakh Raj, who is the investigation officer, confirmed that the people named had been booked. In April, the Chandimandir police had busted a gang of khair-tree thieves from the forest area of Morni in Panchkula and recovered wood worth crores of rupees. The accused had tried to burn the logs to destroy the evidence but the cops prevented it.

That raid was conducted by the local cops and the forest department officials. Police claimed to have found some of the forest department officials involved in the theft. Officials in the forest department said khair was a tree with medicinal properties. It was used for treating skin ailments, stiff neck, tooth decay, diarrhoea, lung infections, besides for shining the leather, crafting wooden ships, and making 'kattha', one of the main ingredients of traditional betel-leaf preparation paan.