Scam net widens as top firms’ officials among 7 more held
Budget speech papers pilfered, says FIR
- Papers relating to Budget speech, power ministry and the ONGC were stolen from the Oil Ministry, says the FIR
- The documents were recovered by the Delhi Police Crime Branch from the two accused Lalta Prasad and his brother, Rakesh Kumar. They sold the papers to consultants
- The two had allegedly “intruded” into Shastri Bhawan in New Delhi, where the offices of the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas are located, the FIR says.
Shaurya Karanbir Gurung
Tribune News Service
New Delhi,
February 20
Five senior executives from
top energy firms and two consultants were arrested today in the
sensational corporate espionage scandal in which classified documents,
including an input for upcoming Finance Minister's Budget speech, were
allegedly leaked.
With this, the total number of
arrests in the case busted yesterday rose to 12.
The five who were arrested on
Friday night by the Crime Branch have been identified as Shailesh Saxena,
manager, corporate affairs, Reliance Industries Limited (RIL); Vinay Kumar,
DGM, Essar; KK Naik, GM, Cairns India; Subhash Chandra, senior executive,
Jubilant Energy; and Rishi Anand, DGM, Reliance ADAG.
Earlier today, the police
arrested two persons — a journalist Santanu Saikia, now running a petro
web portal, and Prayas Jain, a
CEO of a consultancy firm called Metis Business Solutions Private Limited. Five
arrests were made yesterday.
Sources said that the
officials had allegedly procured documents from the Ministry of Petroleum and
Natural Gas. “They had used the documents for corporate affairs,” said Ravindra
Yadav, Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime).
The alleged pilfering of
'secret' documents, which was thought to have been a racket confined to the
Petroleum ministry, actually covered matters in finance, coal and power
ministries, Delhi Police said today.
Documents on Sri Lanka, the
ONGC Videsh Limited and on the Budget were allegedly stolen by two accused, who
have been arrested for selling the documents to consultants, according to the
FIR.
The FIR reveals that the
documents were recovered by the Delhi Police Crime Branch from the two accused,
Lalta Prasad (36) and his brother Rakesh Kumar (30) on the night of February 17
when the two had allegedly “intruded” into Shastri Bhawan in New Delhi,
where the offices of the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas are located.
The police had recovered seven
documents from Lalta, says the FIR. The police also recovered nine documents
from an envelope carried by Rakesh. The documents included photocopies of documents
of presentation to Secretary, Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, copy of
documents concerning issues in different countries on oil and gas sector and
photocopy of documents with input material on National Gas Grid for inclusion
in Finance Minister’s Budget speech.
The FIR has been registered
under the Indian Penal Code sections 457 (lurking house trespass), 380 (theft),
468 (forgery for cheating), 471 (using as genuine a forged document), 120-B
(criminal conspiracy) and 34 (acts done by several persons).
Chief Metropolitan Magistrate
Sanjay Khanagwal of the Patiala House Court in central Delhi today remanded
Shantanu, Prayas, Lalta and Rakesh in the custody of the Crime Branch until
this February 23
The Crime Branch took some of
the accused to Shastri Bhawan as part of the investigations.
The police told the court that
Santanu and Prayas allegedly bribed Lalta and Rakesh every month for procuring
the documents.
"Shantanu and Prayas
would analyse the documents and give it to companies", said the police at
the court. Police sources said some of the companies that received the
documents were Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) and ESSAR, a multinational
corporation with investments in steel, energy and infrastructure.
The police are searching for
two more men - Bir Singh, who would allegedly switch off the CCTV cameras at
Shastri Bhawan before the accused entered the building to steal documents, and
another person who like Lalta and Prayas stole the documents and gave it to the
consultancy firms.
(With PTI
inputs)
