HEAD of Forest Force (HoFF) G Saiprakash on Thursday instituted a probe into the suicide of Range Forest Officer Deepali Chavan at Harisal in Melghat Tiger Reserve on March 26.
Chavan had left behind a suicide notice, wherein she accused Gugamal Forest Division Deputy Conservator of Forest (DCF) Vinod Shivkumar of harassment and talked about that she was taking the intense step due to the harassment.
The probe will probably be performed by a nine-member committee headed by Principal Chief Conservator of Forest (IT and Policy) M Ok Rao. The committee has a number of girls members, together with Meera Trivedi (chief common supervisor, Forest Development Corporation of Maharashtra) and Melghat Divisional Forest Officer Piyusha Jagtap, in addition to an NGO member to be determined by member-Secretary Pravin Chauhan, chief conservator of Forest, Amravati.
The order issued on this regard acknowledged, “It is necessary to find out what led to the mental state that culminated into such an extreme position by RFO Chavan… to prevent recurrence of such incidents. The committee should suggest measures for the same.”
The HoFF has issued broad tips to the committee, directing it to evolve its personal standards for the inquiry and submit the report in two months. The tips say that the committee will learn how relations had been between Chavan and her colleagues throughout her tenures previous to and throughout the one at Harisal.
It can even search particulars of her excursions alongside together with her superior officers, in what number of circumstances had Shivkumar issued show-cause notices to Chavan and what number of instances did the DCF go to the three villages whose rehabilitation was being sorted by Chavan.
The committee can even conduct detailed investigation into the motion taken by Chavan to take away forest encroachments at Mangia village on March 17, 2020, and into the dialogue that the DCF had with police officers concerning registration of an offence towards Chavan below Prevention of Atrocities (SC/ST) Act.
The RFO needed to go on go away following her bail software being rejected. The committee can even look into advice by the Shivkumar to not grant the go away to her. It will test if she had obtained wage for the go away interval.
The probe can even look into the allegation by Chavan in her suicide notice that she was compelled to journey for 3 days in a automobile on pot-holed roads whereas she was pregnant, resulting in a miscarriage. The panel can even verify what number of instances her go away functions had been rejected and what number of instances she had made written or oral complaints to the Melghat Field Director concerning “Shivkumar asking her to come to unseemly places at late night hours and talking to her in vulgar language”.
The committee can even report statements of the staffers in entrance of whom the DCF had allegedly hurled abuses at Chavan, as acknowledged by her within the suicide notice.
Statements of staffers can even be recorded about Chavan’s allegations that Shivkumar had requested her to return to the vacationer complicated alone, and tried to benefit from the state of affairs.
