STATE OF H.P. Vs. MEDH RAM

JUDGEMENT

(1.) RESPONDENTS Medh Ram, Chain Singh, Joginder Singh and Om Parkash were sent up for trial for offences punishable under Sections 379 and 341 of the Indian Penal Code and Section 33 of the Indian Forest Act for allegedly felling four 'Chil' trees from a demarcated protected forest and stealing the timber of those trees and then getting the same converted into planks and poles. The trial Court acquitted all the four respondents. State, feeling aggrieved by the judgment of acquittal, filed this appeal.

(2.) PROSECUTION case, as per record of the trial Court, is like this. On 2.2.1995 Forest Guard Sukh Dev Sharma (PW-3) went to the demarcated protected forest, in question, and noticed that one 'Chil' tree had been felled by respondent Medh Ram. He issued damage report. On

(3.) CASE of the prosecution is that the trees had been felled from a demarcated protected forest. The respondents took the plea that the trees were felled by them from their private land, which is not far away from the demarcated protected forest. The sites where the trees had been felled, are alleged to have been demarcated by Kanungo Paras Ram (PW-