CBI has registered four separate cases against senior officials of Kerala Rifle Association to probe allegations of illegal procurement of ammunition and its misuse.
The agency filed the four FIRs on the directions of the Kerala High court in this regard. The Kerala police had earlier been probing the case under various sections of the IPC and Arms Act.
A CBI spokesperson here said the agency has booked the then secretary of Kottayam district Rifle Association P K Mohanan, the then secretary of Kerala State Rifle Association Joy I Mangly and the then secretary of Palakkad district Rifle Association Devasai Kurien in this case.
The spokesperson said the first FIR pertains to allegations that unknown persons had registered an association in the name of Kerala State Rifle Association (KSRA) on July 31, 2008 by using forged documents at the Alappuzha Registrar office.
In the second case, he said, it has been alleged that Mohanan did not maintain proper records between a block period of 2009-2013 for the purchase of ammunition for the association.
"There were lot of alleged discrepancies in the procurement and use of the ammunition as per the records maintained by the accused, disclosing therein that he had caused loss and misappropriation of ammunition to the tune of 1.5 lakh rounds," he said.
In the third case, the spokesperson said, it has been alleged Mangly had "violated the provisions of Arms Act 1959 by having in possession of a large number of prohibited ammunition of different calibre which was part of the ammunition procured by Kerala State Rifle Association from National Rifle Association for shooting practice and shooting competition of the teams participating in the recently concluded National Games."
In the last case, he said, it has been alleged that Kurien, in August 2015, had procured 11,500 rounds of ammunition as loan from Mangly and the said ammunition were later on returned by the accused.
"It was further alleged that there were no authentication for the said transactions as KSRA was not having arms license and were not allowed to possess ammunition and as such they could not lend ammunition to the accused," he said.
