The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is said to be conducting raids at the National Defence Academy (NDA) premises in Khadakwasla near Pune. The raids are in connection with the appointment of teachers at the academy.
The offices and residence of the accused is being searched. The CBI has also registered a case against NDA's principal OP Shukla, a professor of Political Science, assistant professors of Chemistry, Mathematics, HOD of the Chemistry department and a few others, reported ANI. The professors are said to have submitted fake papers for recruitment
Meanwhile, this is not the first search at the academy. In April 2014, the CBI is known to have carried out a day-long raid at the NDA along with the army's vigilance wing in connection with the procurement of computers within the NDA.
During the raid, the CBI and the vigilance wing had seized several documents and they also questioned staffers, academic officers and heads of departments.
"The CBI team found RFID machines in some departments. In some, they were missing. The project, though executed within NDA, has been a failure as computers procured under RFID project are used as individual computers by many. The team took files with them," the Indian Express had, at the time, quoted a source as saying.
A CBI official also said that the raid was carried out on the basis of specific inputs they had received.
In 2017, the CBI had also initiated a preliminary probe regarding the recruitment of professors and associate professors in various departments of the NDA between 2006 and 2012. The agency was at the time acting on information sent to them by a few other faculty members of the NDA.
National Defence Academy
The National Defence Academy is the joint services academy of the Indian Armed Forces, and trains the cadets of the Indian Army, Indian Air Force and the Indian Navy. Affiliated to the Jawaharlal Nehru University, the NDA is based in Khadakwasla near Pune in Maharashtra.
The NDA is the first tri-service academy in the world and cadets go on to other institutes for further training – the Indian Military Academy (IMA) in Dehradun for army, the Air Force Academy in Dundigul near Hyderabad and the Indian Naval Academy in Ezhimala, Kannur district, Kerala.
(This is a developing story)
