Did the Range Forest Officer (RFO) of the Tungareshwar Wildlife Sanctuary (TWS) have a hand in deleting the CCTV footage of the attack on the staff and forest property that occurred in March? This is the question the staff members of the sanctuary have been asking seeing how none of the accused have been arrested for the alleged assault. On June 24, forest guards and beat guards from TWS and adjoining areas wrote to the chief conservator of forests, Anwar Ahmed, alleging that then RFO, Narendra Muthe, deliberately slowed the pace of the investigation.

mid-day reached out to Ahmed, but he remained unavailable for comment. The forest guards have demanded probe into the incident from a police officer or the CID. The letter (mid-day has a copy) states, "Role of RFO Narendra Muthe in the entire incident that led to the attack on forest staff and office needs to be investigated as the officer didn't conduct a fair investigation." They have not received any response yet.