The DoE, however, eventually lodged the case late into Monday night after the mobile court magistrate threatened to sue the DoE officials if they did not carry out his orders without any further delay, sources said yesterday.

During the second day of the crackdown on illegal hill-cutting, the mobile court led by Chittagong Port Authority (CPA) Magistrate Mohammad Munir Chowdhury on Monday found three instances of devouring hills causing degradation of the environment at Nasiaghona of Koibalyadham in the port city's Uttar Pahartali and Lake City Housing Project areas, both under Khulshi Police Station.

The magistrate instantly ordered DoE Director Mosharraf Hossain to file cases against Chittagong City Corporation (CCC) and Concord Group for cutting and razing hills for their Lake City Housing and Water Park projects.

The court found the Concord Group, which had built an amusement park at Foy's Lake, created a water-reservoir for its Water Park by levelling a part of a hill adjoining Lake City Housing.

The group rehabilitated the affected locals cutting smaller pockets at different points of the hill, pushing the latter under serious risk of landslides, the court noticed.

Having found no culprits on the spots, Magistrate Munir ordered the DoE director to file separate cases against those responsible for the mindless hill cutting.

Sources say DoE Senior Chemist Moqbul Hossain and another official Abdul Malek Miah lodged two cases, one against the CCC and another against a number of owners of Jalalabad Housing, Monday afternoon with Khulshi Police Station. But the DoE officials started dilly-dallying to lodge the case against Concord Group.

Sources alleged the DoE director wanted to serve a show-cause notice against the Concord Group instead. Hearing about the move, Magistrate Munir told the officials to file the case immediately as per his order or face actions.

DoE Junior Chemist Saiful Islam, advised by his director, went to Khulshi Police Station around 10:30pm and lodged the case against Concord Group, with its General Manager Mohammad Zakaria as the accused.

The case was filed under Environment Protection Act 1995 in connection with destroying the environment by cutting hills and damaging the eco-balance, court sources said.

On contact Magistrate Munir Chowdhury yesterday afternoon said the DoE officials wasted time without any apparent good reason regarding the filing of the case.

DoE Director Mosharraf, however, refuted the allegation and said it does not matter if the case is filed early or late. He also denied that he wanted to serve a show-cause notice instead of filing a case.