Three charged over alleged excessive clearing of Kranji woodland

Three people, including a former deputy director at JTC Corporation, linked to the unauthorised clearing of Kranji woodland were charged in court yesterday.

Trees in an area spanning more than 7.3ha - about the size of eight football fields - were cleared before approval was granted.

The issue was highlighted after aerial photos of the site appeared on social media.

Chong Pui Chih, 46, was handed seven charges under the Parks and Trees Act.

Neo Jek Lin, 44, a JTC senior project manager at the time of the alleged offences, was also charged.

He was handed eight charges - seven under the Parks and Trees Act and one under the Wildlife Act.

The third person, an employee from consultancy firm CPG Consultants, Tan See Chee, 63, faces five charges under the Parks and Trees Act.

At the time of the alleged offences, he was a superintending officer of contracts.

His colleague Jimmy Liu Wing Tim, 62, a superintending officer's representative at the time, is expected to be charged at a later date.

All four are accused of being part of a conspiracy to cause construction company Huationg Contractor to cut trees with girths exceeding 1m growing on vacant land without approval from the Commissioner of Parks and Recreation.

They allegedly committed the offences some time before Jan 13 last year.

Huationg is then said to have cut down more than 300 trees at Kranji Agri-Food Innovation Park (Afip) in Kranji Close and Kranji Road. The trees were located in multiple plots in the area. There were more than 10 plots in all.

Chong is also accused of two counts of falsifying documents to obtain approval from the Commissioner of Parks and Recreation.

On Nov 19, 2020, she allegedly drafted and sent an e-mail to an officer from the National Parks Board (NParks) seeking approval for clearance works at a plot in Kranji Afip.

According to court documents, this is said to be false as clearance works at the plot had already started by then.

On Jan 12 last year, Chong allegedly created and presented a Microsoft Powerpoint document to an NParks officer seeking approval to start clearance works at other plots in Kranji Afip.

Court documents stated that this is also said to be false as such works at the plots had started by then.

Neo is accused of making similar false documents in November 2020 and January last year. He also allegedly hindered the director-general of wildlife management around Sept 25, 2020.

Neo is said to have instructed Mr Liu to send an e-mail to an NParks officer containing a schedule for the clearance works at Kranji Afip.

This was in response to an e-mail from NParks on Sept 2 that year asking for information on the state of the clearance works at the site.

It purportedly showed that clearance works had started on only one particular plot at the site when in fact, Neo allegedly knew that such works had already begun on other plots there without the implementation of any wildlife-related measures.

As a result, Neo is said to have prevented the director-general from exercising his powers to stop work at the site.

The cases involving all four have been adjourned to May 23.

Responding to queries, JTC said Neo has been suspended. Chong, however, is no longer working for the company.