Palanpur: The state government on Friday transferred assistant conservator forest (ACF) J R Patel, and office superintendent J M Limbachiya of Banaskantha after their names cropped up during investigation into bribery charges against Dantiwada range forest officer Chandrakant Joshi who was arrested on Monday.
Joshi was arrested for taking the bribe of Rs 12,000 for allowing a contractor to take a truck load of woods from the forest. When the anti-corruption bureau (ACB) conducted search at Joshi’s house, they recovered Rs 13.75 lakh kept in four separate envelops with the names of forest officials written on them.
Sources in the ACB said that Joshi during interrogation divulged several details including the names of people involved in corruption and other irregularities.
According to ACB Inspector KJ Patel, “With the help of the engineers we are measuring the forest land and carrying out the investigation to assess the quantum of corruption in the governmental grant allotted to Dantiwada forest range.”