Acting on a complaint registered by the Army headquarters in New Delhi on Monday, three teams of Central Bureau of Investigation's Anti-corruption Bureau on Tuesday raided residences of Lt Gen (Retd) Nobel Thamburaj, the then General Officer Commanding-in-Chief (GOC-in-C), S R Nayyar, a retired Defence Estates officer, Pune Circle, and the office of Kalpataru builders, for their alleged involvement in a land scam.
Acting on a complaint registered by the Army headquarters in New Delhi on Monday, three teams of Central Bureau of Investigation's Anti-corruption Bureau on Tuesday raided residences of Lt Gen (Retd) Nobel Thamburaj, the then General Officer Commanding-in-Chief (GOC-in-C), S R Nayyar, a retired Defence Estates officer, Pune Circle, and the office of Kalpataru builders, for their alleged involvement in a land scam.u00a0
Raided: CBI officials at the Kalpataru builders office yesterday
In the compliant, both the retired officials have been accused of giving a go-ahead to the builder for constructing a commercial complex on a plot opposite Army Supply Depot on 8-A Lothian Road in Cantonment area. Kalpataru builders had bought the developmental rights for the bungalow on Lothian Road ufffd a 0.96-acre plot held by R M Master on lease.u00a0
u00a0"A case has been registered against retired Lt Gen Thamburaj, S R Nayyar, a retired Defence Estate officer, Pune Circle, and Kalpataru builders, for criminal conspiracy, cheating and criminal misconduct," said the CBI in a press statement. u00a0"There was a dispute going on regarding the property in question. Thamburaj and Nayyar settled the matter out of court, in spite of several court orders given in favour of the army. The duo indulged in gross misconduct."u00a0
The CBI said the two retired army officials ignored rules and policies, violated terms of lease entered into by the Ministry of Defence and Kalpataru, and helped the private company make pecuniary gains worth Rs 46 crore.
Rishiraj Singh, joint director of Western region, CBI, said, u00a0"Investigations are on to find out what the two accused got in return for the favour shown by them to Kalpataru."u00a0
The raids
A team of four CBI officers headed by Deputy Superintendent Rajpal Singh raided Kalpataru's office located on North Main Road yesterday afternoon. After five hours of searching, the officers were spotted leaving the office premises with two stacks of files at 5.45 pm. DYSP Singh said that no computers or hard disks were seized from the builder's office.u00a0While the remaining two teams conducted raids at Thamburaj's residence in Fatima Nagar and Nayyar's residence in Lullanagar, respectively.
