Case registered against Pondy varsity professor

By Our Staff Reporter

PONDICHERRY, JAN. 6. Pondicherry police have registered a case against Prof. S. A. Abbasi, Director of the Centre for Pollution Control and Energy Technology of the Pondicherry Central University, following a complaint filed by the University that he had `cut scores of trees' in the vicinity of his residence in the university campus at Kalapet a few days ago. A spokesman of the university said more than 80 trees had been chopped. A source said that the professor was `absconding'.

An officer on special duty in the university who rushed to the site to ensure that there was no cutting of trees and to hold enquiry was `assaulted'. The trees belonged to the university and were sought to be sold in the neighbouring village . The police have, meanwhile, arrested eight workers for cutting the trees. The police recovered the wood and handed them over to the court.

Ms. Tasneem Abbasi, daughter of Prof. Abbasi, in a statement released to medipersons on Friday night said her father had been `falsely implicated' for a crime he had never committed. She said that only after some of the trees had fallen in the recent cyclone did the professor get the trees cut in public interest. They were also cut on request from the neighbours as the tall growth of the trees had become dangerous to the buildings and the inhabitants in the residential quarters. When some university officers came and questioned him, the professor explained the situation to the Vice-Chancellor, she said.

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Section  : Southern States
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