Engineer from Jalpaiguri remanded to 7-day custody

Darjeeling: The arrested engineer from Jalpaiguri was taken to those areas of the forests where he frequently visited for clicking photographs and shooting videos.

Jasprakash Debdas, an engineer at the Jalpaiguri Municipality, was arrested on November 18 for entering core areas of forests, disturbing animals and also misbehaving with the forest personnel.

He along with two others had been arrested from Karbala Tea Estate at Banarhaat in the Jalpaiguri district. They have been charged under Sections of the Wildlife Conservation Act and Information Technology Act. Debdas was frequent in the core areas of Gorumara and Chapramari forests in Dooars. He used to shoot videos, click pictures and upload them on social network sites. All of these activities were done without permission from the forest department. He even used drones to shoot videos.

On Sunday, Debdas was produced at a Jalpaiguri Court. Owing to some technical problems, the Forest department could not pray for his remand. He was sent to a day of Judicial custody.

On Monday, he was produced at the court. The Forest department had prayed for 10 days of custody. However, Debdas was remanded to Forest department custody for seven days. Debdas was taken to the Gorumara and Chapramari forests. "We wanted to see the locations where he used to shoot videos and click photographs. He was taken to these areas and questioned. We are also probing if he has links with the poachers," stated Nisha Goswami, DFO, Jalpaiguri.

Following his arrest, Debdas was suspended from the Jalpaiguri Municipality.