A board of inquiry against the two senior-most members of the Navy’s high flying skydiving team has found several cases of monetary bungling by the officers and estimates that financial improprieties of over Rs 90 lakh were carried out by the duo on the pretext of taking part in adventure sports activities.

The detailed inquiry report on the two officers, Lt Commanders N Rajesh and Mahesh Birajdar who had been charged with financial impropriety and embezzlement of funds from the government, and a prominent woman skydiver has been completed and is being studied by senior officers.

Sources said a decision on whether to proceed with a court martial against the two officers is likely to be taken within a few weeks but the inquiry has enough damning evidence to proceed with punitive action.

The detailed inquiry report, which contains statements by woman skydiver Shital Mahajan who is a recipient of the Tenzing Norgay National Adventure Award and findings of the investigating team, has been referred to the Navy’s Vigilance department and is being studied by various other departments.

The voluminous report, sources say, points to instances of financial impropriety but it would take a military court to decide whether the officers actually embezzled funds that were earmarked for adventure sports.

The Vigilance department of the Navy is now scrutinising bank account details and other financial transactions of the two officers to establish whether there is ground to proceed with a court martial.

As first reported in this newspaper, the high profile sports skydiving training team of the Navy had courted controversy after an inquiry was set up against two of its top officers. The officers were being investigated for misusing adventure sports funds for personal purposes, including an extended vacation in Paris.

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