As the scandal involving theft of sensitive Government documents by a well-knit spy ring rattled the corporate world and the media industry, the Delhi Police on Saturday claimed that such economic espionage activities have subverted the national security.
Unfazed by the claim, arrested journalist Santanu Saikia sought to give an entirely different spin to the whole murky episode by ‘screaming’ he was trying to expose a Rs10,000-crore scam in the Petroleum Ministry.
Meanwhile, senior police officials said, “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 and we promise to unmask all the conspirators.” Sources said the Delhi Police may invoke the Official Secrets Act against 12 persons, including the five arrested corporate executives.
In a related development, a Delhi Police team raided the Noida-based office of a corporate house involved in energy production. The search was conducted after one of the arrested five executives disclosed that the stolen document have been stored in that office. The investigators have also found that the unlawful activities were going on for the past two years.
Meanwhile, Santanu Saikia, a journalist currently running a petro web portal, claimed to reporters outside the Crime Branch office at Chanakyapuri that it was a Rs10,000 crore scam which he was trying uncover. “It was a Rs10,000 crore scam. Please quote me,” he shouted before the reporters standing outside the office.
Reacting to his claim, Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said Saikia was saying such things just to cover up his own defence. “let him spill out all the information he has. The primary accusation is that somebody stole the papers from the Ministry. Police is investigating. Anybody has the right to tell everything to police,” he said.
Pradhan said police is doing an independent job and everything will be clear after investigation. law will take its course, whoever they may be, he said when asked about the arrest of executives of private companies.
Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Sanjay Khanagwal allowed the Crime Branch of Delhi Police to quiz the accused in custody till February 24 after police said charges under the OSA might also be invoked as the stolen documents related to national security as well.
The five accused who were produced in the court are Shailesh Saxena from RIl, Vinay Kumar from Essar, KK Naik from Cairns, Subhash Chandra from Jubilant Energy and Rishi Anand from Reliance ADAG. Saxena is Manager, corporate affairs, Reliance Industries limited(RIl); Chandra is senior executive, Jubilant Energy; Anand is DGM, Reliance ADAG; Vinay is DGM, Essar and Naik is GM, Cairns India.
Source said besides companies dealing with oil, petrol and power ministries Government officials who were helping the outsiders in gaining easy access to ministries, were also o under the scanner of the Delhi Police Crime Branch.
According to police, the officials of the company were paying as much as Rs 1 lakh for the stolen documents. “The investigation so far said that the arrested persons were involved for the past two years in the activity but their previous involvements also can’t be ruled out,” said the officer.
After getting these documents the accused officials used to give them to their senior members. A local court remanded all five arrested corporate executive in police custody till February 24 for further questioning.
Several places including the offices of the arrested persons were raided on Friday night and Saturday morning. Police said at least seven sacks filled with documents which are related to power and coal has been seized.
Police official told The Pioneer the involvement of more officials, apart from Iswar and Asharam, could not be ruled out and they will soon start questioning of people were who helping the two in getting the documents.
Asharam (58) and Iswar Singh (56), two multi-tasking staffers in the ministry were arrested along with lalta Prasad, Rakesh Kumar and Rajkumar Chaubey on Thursday.
Following their arrests, the police early on Friday had arrested Shantanu Saikia and another energy co0nsultant Prayas Jain in the case. Police also raided the Jain’s and Saikia’s offices and recovered more documents.
The investigators were confident enough to reach out to the last layer of the nexus working behind the whole corporate nexus in getting the secret doucuments of ministries like petrol, coal and power. Police also said that they were confident enough that they will not leave any stone unturned and bring out the truth.
Sources also said the Ministries have also started their internal probe simultaneous with the police.