Maha minister gets jail for contempt

New Delhi: The Supreme court has sentenced Maharashtra transport minister Swarup Singh Naik to one month in prison for contempt of court.

He has been sentenced for allowing an illegal saw mill to run in a forest in Vidarbha near Tadoba sanctuary when he was the Maharashtra forest minister.

The Court in 1997 had directed the state government to not renew the licenses of sawmills in the forest area near the Tadoba sanctuary.

But in 2004 the forest department permitted six such mills to operate in violation of the court's order.

Additional Chief Secretary (Forest) of Maharashtra Government, Ashok Khot has also been given a month in jail.

A three-judge bench of the Supreme Court observed that Naik and Khot were guilty of violating the court order in which they were asked to shut down sawmills running without licenses.