Mumbai, Jan. 31: The CBI today raided the homes of a former army vice-chief and another officer accused of giving away prime defence land in Pune to a private developer and causing a loss of Rs 46 crore.

The raids on the homes of Lt General Nobel Thamburaj, who retired as vice-chief around two years ago, and former defence estate officer S.R. Nayyar followed a complaint from the defence ministry, CBI officials said.

Thamburaj and Nayyar are accused of signing off the 0.96-acre plot in Pune Cantonment by entering into an out-of-court settlement with the developer despite a court order that favoured the army in a case over the disputed land.

An office of Kalpataru Builders in Pune’s Koregaon Park was also searched.

Thamburaj is accused of allegedly pushing the deal in collusion with Nayyar when the former was general officer commanding of the Pune-based Southern Command five years ago.

Today’s swoops — in the middle of a CBI probe into the Adarsh Housing Society scam in Mumbai — followed a case of cheating, criminal misconduct and criminal conspiracy registered by the CBI yesterday against the duo and the developer.

According to the ministry’s complaint, the plot given away by Thamburaj and Nayyar was deemed defence land and housed a bungalow.

Rishiraj Singh, the CBI’s joint director (western region), said the agency was trying to find out how exactly the duo benefited. “Investigations are on to find out what the two accused got in return of the undue favour shown by them to Kalpataru,” Singh told PTI.

This is the second CBI probe against the Mumbai-based Kalpataru. On January 13 this year, the agency registered a preliminary inquiry into a deal where some senior army officers allegedly “relinquished” a strip of prime land under the possession of the Central Ordinance Depot (COD) in Mumbai’s Kandivli. These officers, too, were from the Southern Command.

The land, measuring almost an acre, was later sold to Kalpataru. The investigation was lodged based on a report from the army’s additional director-general (discipline and vigilance).

The Adarsh scam in Mumbai also involves illegal sale of alleged defence land. Other than the CBI probe, the Prithviraj Chavan government has appointed a two-member commission to probe whether the land belonged to the army.