Illegal sand sale: Ezhimala Naval Academy raided

KOCHI: The CBI on Thursday raided the Naval Academy in Ezhimala in connection with a corruption case involving the sale of sand from the academy. The CBI suspected that a commander from the academy had illegally sold sand from the academy with the help of a contractor who was handed the dredging work of a canal meant for teaching swimming to the cadets.The suspects were Mukundan N Rajiv, Commander with Navy, and Asraf Bakeer, managing director of ASR Dredging Service, Singapore. According to the CBI, the accused had illegally sold Rs 1.5-crore worth sand that was dredged from the canal used to teach swimming to the cadets.CBI also raided Mukundan’s houses in Vishakhapatnam and Palakkad.  Asraf’s house in Ernakulam and temporary shelter in Ezhimala too were raided. The CBI had filed a case under section 120B (criminal conspiracy), 140 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property) of the IPC and the Prevention of Corruption Act.“We have conducted raids in the Naval Academy and the houses of the two suspects. A case has been registered but no arrests have been made yet. Some documents were seized during the raids. The arrest will be made only after going through the documents. We have to examine whether more people are involved in the case,” Krishna Kumar, CBI, SP said.