Ranchi, July 6: The charges levelled against principal chief conservator of forest (PCCF) A.K. Singh by the wife of slain forest range officer Anil Singh have created a flutter in the department.

In the statement given before the police, she said that PCCF had assigned the construction work of department building to a private contractor Sulochana Budhia and her husband and mounted pressure on Anil for clearing the payment. As Anil was reluctant due to poor quality of construction work, senior forest officials killed him with help of contract killers. The statement was forwarded to the chief judicial magistrate, Ghanshyam Mullick, today.

At the condolence meeting of Anil today, the PCCF and forest secretary Sukhdev Singh refused to comment on the matter.

Police today grilled several forest department officials including divisional forest officers (DFO) and forest guards to get some clue about the murder of Singh.

Senior police superintendent Praveen Kumar said he was probing the case from different angle. “Apart from probing his involvement in real estate business, we are also trying to know about the action taken in the complaint lodged by Anil at Latehar in 1995-96. We have come to know that Anil had lodged complaint against some DFOs and range officers accusing them of misappropriating Rs 10 crore from the government exchequer. Several people are on the verge of losing their job due to that inquiry. We are trying to know whether that complaint is the reason behind his murder,” Kumar said.