Old grant bungalow sealing: Southern Command Defence Estates director gets police security

Ray has been given additional security based on the threat perception in the wake old grant bungalow fraudulent sale and sealing case

Pune city police have provided armed security to the director of defence estates, Southern Command Saurav Ray on account of a threat to his life, officials said on Saturday.

Ray is an IDES officer of the 1994 batch who previously was on deputation to the cabinet secretariat, Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) from 2003 to 2016. (HT PHOTO)

Ray has been given additional security based on the threat perception in the wake old grant bungalow fraudulent sale and sealing case, where four bungalows in the Pune Cantonment area estimated to be worth ₹350 crore have been sealed and fifteen more are on the scanner of the Defence Estates Office (DEO), Pune Circle.

Reacting to the development, Pune Police Commissioner Retesh Kumaarr said, “We have given an armed policeman as security to Defence Estates Officer Saurav Ray based on his request after taking a review of the sensitive positions of the central government departments he has worked during his previous tenure. Currently, he is handling the defence bungalows sealing case and security has been provided in that context.”

Ray is an IDES officer of the 1994 batch who previously was on deputation to the cabinet secretariat, Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) from 2003 to 2016, and the custodian of enemy property for India from August 2020 to May 2023. In between 2016-2019, he served as the director of Defence Estates at Eastern Command, Kolkata.

Ray, after being appointed as Defence Estates director, Southern Command- issued orders for taking strict action against the fraudulent sale of old grant bungalows in the cantonment area.