Neither Shah-e-Alam nor the Panchhari range official was involved in taking bribes to pave the way for loggers to plunder the forest, the forest official said in a rejoinder.

He denied taking Tk 10 to 50 thousand in bribe for issuing permits for orchards.

He also brushed aside the allegation of taking Tk 50-70 thousand in bribes for dismissing cases.

The rejoinder also said the amount of expenditure, mentioned in The Daily Star report, for creating reserve forests and orchards and rehabilitation of landless families is not correct.

OUR REPLY
The Daily Star reporter contacted at least 50 people, including forest officials, loggers, labourers, and rehabilitated people of the area for the report.

Before filing the news, our reporter had also contacted DFO Shah-e-Alam for his version about actual figures of expenditure for reserve forest, orchard and settlement purposes. But the DFO avoided giving the figures saying that it was not easy to find out the expenditure files maintained 21 years ago.