Muttil tree-felling case: Kerala High Court refuses to stay trial court proceedings against accused

The Kerala High Court has refused to stay the trial court proceedings against Roji Augustine, an accused in an alleged cheating case connected with the Muttil tree-felling case.

He, along with his brothers Jose Kutty Augustine and Anto Augustine, had been arraigned as accused in the case being tried in the Chottanikkara Judicial First Class Magistrate Court in Ernakulam. While hearing the plea for a stay, the court adjourned the matter for hearing on Tuesday – September 8.

The prosecution case is that the accused persons cheated M. M. Aliyar, the proprietor of Malabar Timber Industries, Karimugal, Ernakulam district, to the tune of ₹1.4 crore by offering to sell him timber. According to the FIR registered on July 13, 2021, the brothers allegedly collected the amount as advance in instalments from the trader and sold him 54 pieces of timber from the ‘illegally felled trees’. The trees were allegedly cut and transported from the Meppadi Forest Range in Wayanad.

Despite repeated requests, the accused allegedly refused to return the advance or produce valid permits. Mr. Aliyar then alerted the Forest department, which confirmed the illegal sale and confiscated the timber on February 8, 2021. The police had initially booked the case under IPC Sections 406 (criminal breach of trust) and 420 (cheating). Later, the Kerala High Court quashed the charge under Section 406 but upheld the cheating offence.

Discharge petition

In their discharge petition, the accused argued that no permit was required for transporting the timber sold and that the charges were unsustainable. Mr. Aliyar countered that he was misled into believing that the timber sale was lawful. The court rejected the accused persons’ contention, noting that the Forest department’s investigation established that they had no authority to transport or sell the timber. In July, the Kerala High Court had dismissed the discharge petitions of Jose Kutty Augustine and Anto Augustine.

The brothers are also key accused in the alleged large-scale illegal felling and smuggling of protected rosewood and teak trees estimated at ₹8 crore from assigned lands in Muttil South, Wayanad, carried out without the Forest department’s permission.