NEW DELHI: The Central Bureau of Investigation on Tuesday began attaching the properties of Ravi Shankaran, absconding nephew of navy chief Admiral Arun Prakash and a key accused in the naval war room leak.
But CBI officers who went to Ravi’s Pune residence, where his parents live, were surprised to find his Mercedes Benz missing.
Ravi, a former navy officer accused of leaking classified information from the war room, has been evading the CBI and is believed to be somewhere in Europe.
Over the past year, three officers posted in the war room have been dismissed. The CBI has carried out nationwide raids and indicted many people, including arms dealers and retired military officers.
On Tuesday, the agency said it had “attached the factory premises” of Ravi Shankaran at S-58, Verna Industrial Estate, Phase-2B, Salcette, south Goa. The building is owned by Shanx Oceaneering Private Limited, one of Ravi’s companies involved in defence deals.
Ravi was declared an absconder by court and given time to appear before it after a proclamation was published in a newspaper in London on August 11. But he failed to show up. So, on September 12, the court ordered attachment of his properties.
The CBI officers were told by Ravi’s parents that “somebody had come with a message” from him and taken the car “some time ago”. The agency is trying to trace the car. It has also frozen the HSBC bank account of a firm called Besix India owned by Ravi.
