Itahari, June 5:

The Sunsari District Forest Office has initiated investigation into the case involving the seizure of two truckloads of catechu logs.

Cadres of the Maoist-affiliated Young Communist League (YCL) had taken the trucks ferrying

the logs to Himali Kattha Udhyog at Hansposa under control on Tuesday night.

A team headed by Assistant Forest Officer Mrigendra Kumar Sarraf is investigating the case. It said half of the logs were found without stickers.

Meanwhile, cadres of the YCL have demanded that illegal catechu wood worth billions of rupees lying on the premises of the Himali Kattha Udhyog be brought under scanner. According to Maoists’ Sunsari in-charge Mukesh, Minister for Forest and Soil Conservation Matrika Yadav was informed when District Forest Officer Murari Pokharel tried to cover up the case.

Minister Yadav is learnt to have directed Pokharel not to cover up the case and punish the factory involved in the illegal deal.

Mukesh claimed an attempt was going on to make the illegal catechu wood deal legal and warned that District Forest Office Pokharel would not be spared if he made it happen.

The Maoists said Keshav Karki, owner of the Himali Kattha Udhyog, was at large since the day the wood was seized. An employee at the factory, however, said Karki was in Butwal on a business trip and will be back in a few days.