Dehradun, Nov. 13 -- Chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami has ordered a reinvestigation into alleged irregularities in the 2013 Forest Guard (Recruitment of Casual Labourers) at Rajaji National Park, an official release from the chief minister's office (CMO) later in the day said. According to the release, the chief conservator of forests and chief wildlife warden Ranjan Kumar Mishera was appointed as investigating officer, with assistance from presenting officer appointee Vaibhav Kumar, deputy conservator of forests, Chakrata division. The accused, former deputy director of Rajaji National Park, HK Singh, acknowledged the state government's move to reopen the investigation into the matter. The case circles around alleged issues with the qualifications of certain candidates, officials said. "The 2018 investigation into the matter was not done as per procedure, as the state government did not appoint a presenting officer and the appointment process of inquiry officer was also not followed," he said. Dhami also approved the prosecution sanction against Akhilesh Tiwari, former deputy conservator of forests/ divisional forest officer of Kalagarh Tiger Reserve in Landsowne, who was named in a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) chargesheet filed against eight forest officials under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), in a case that involved the alleged illegal felling of trees and unauthorised construction work in the Corbett Tiger Reserve in September 2021. The charge sheet was intimated to the Supreme Court in May, after the top court ordered a central investigation into the matter in March 2024. The order was a validation of an earlier high court directive in September 2023, which first ordered a CBI investigation following a petition filed by Gaurav Kumar Bansal, Supreme Court advocate and wildlife activist, before the Delhi high court, in 2021. The Delhi high court directed a National Tiger Conservation Authority (NCTA) to conduct an investigation in August 2021, followed by a suo-moto directive in October that year by the Uttarakhand high court that ordered a probe report by the state and Centre into the matter. A report by the Principal Accountant General (Audit) Uttarakhand's in July 2023 had found gross financial irregularities in various projects in CTR, Kalagarh Tiger Reserve (KTR) and Lansdowne Forest Divisions. In September 2023, the state high court ordered a CBI probe into the case. The report pointed out that no administrative, and other approvals were obtained before the commencement of Safari work and others in the vicinity....