In another major development in the corporate espionage case, the Delhi Police Crime Branch on Friday arrested one official from Ministry of Road Transport and Highways and another from Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) for questioning. Besides, the Crime Branch has also sent the seized documents to the concerned Ministries to ascertain the level of secrecy and their importance.
The arrested were identified as Rajveer, a personal assistant (PA) to a Joint Secretary posted in the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways and Kailash also a PA to a UPSC member. They were arrested for procuring and further selling the documents to various energy consultants. The Crime Branch also issued notices to 11 senior executives of various energy companies including Reliance India limited and Essar to join the probe.
The Crime Branch sleuths were mulling to slap the Official Secret Act (OSA) in the case. They have also conducted raids in Delhi and NCR (national capital region) and recovered confidential documents pertaining to various Ministries.
Their names surfaced during the interrogation of lokesh Sharma, whose module was operated independently, while 13 people were arrested last week including Reliance Industries corporate affairs manager Shailesh Saxena, Jubliant Energy senior executive Subhash Chandra, Reliance ADAG DGM Rishi Anand, Essar DGM Vinay Gupta and Cairns India GM KK Naik. The raids were conducted in offices of these of the arrested persons and more documents were also seized, an official added.
Sources told The Pioneer that the sealed files containing stolen documents from the Ministries of Petroleum and Natural Gas, Coal, Power, Defence and Environment have been sent to the concerned Ministries on Friday. The sleuths were expecting the reply from the Ministries as soon possible. Once we get the Ministries’ responses, decision to slap the OSA in the case of theft, forgery and trespass. As of now, 16 people have been arrested in the two FIRs lodged in the case.