Close on the heels of the corporate espionage case, the CBI on Thursday busted another major racket involving leakage of sensitive documents from various departments of Union Finance and Commerce Ministries for the last over two years. The agency conducted searches at six places in the national Capital relating to two suspected Government officials and two premises of a Mumbai-based chartered accountant who allegedly passed on the leaked information to corporate houses.
The searches were conducted after the CBI registered a case of alleged sale/leakage of confidential documents related to foreign investment policies which were passed on to major corporate groups of the country. The agency has slapped Sections 120-B (criminal conspiracy) and 381 (theft) under the Indian Penal Code and sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act relating to abuse of official position.
During the daylong searches, the CBI sleuths recovered Rs60 lakh in cash from the official and residential premises of the accused Chartered Accountant Khemchand Gandhi. The two other accused include Under Secretary in the Department of Disinvestment and Grievances, Ashok Kumar Singh and Section Officer in the Department of Economic Affairs, lala Ram Sharma. CBI sources said a major coordinated search operation was conducted at various locations including a number of offices of Finance Ministry and Commerce Ministry, residences of its officials and Gandhi.
The sources said a large number of confidential documents besides the cash was recovered from the residence of the accused Chartered Accountant besides loads of electronic data have been found on the laptop, tablets and hard disks recovered from the residence of the officials and the CA. The sources said Gandhi, Singh and Sharma, who were earlier detained, have been arrested by the agency late on Thursday night.
In its FIR, the CBI has alleged that these Government servants allegedly sold documents related to Foreign Investment Policies to Gandhi who in turn passed them on to big corporates for a consideration. The sources said big names in banking, pharmaceuticals and realty business are under the scanner of the agency which CBI officials termed as “tip of the iceberg”. All these groups under scanner have applied for foreign investments.
The companies under the CBI scanner include HDFC Bank ltd, IndusInd Bank ltd, Glenmark Pharmaceuticals and DlF limitless Pvt ltd. Other companies suspected to have procured such documents are Kakardi British Realty, Modril India Pvt ltd, Prime living and Nova lead Pharma.
The agency conducted the searches at Department of Economic Affairs and Department of Disinvestment under the Finance Ministry besides Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion under the Commerce Ministry.
The sources said the racket was active for last over two years and might have sold and influenced the policy of Government regarding foreign investments in India. “The Under Secretaries and Section Officers of Ministries are custodian of policy documents and also initiate policy notes/proposals. We suspect that they might be influencing the policies in favour of corporates by compromising the Government decision-making processes. But that is a matter of probe,” a senior CBI official alleged.
The sources said the agency was tracking the detained officials and the chartered accountant and intercepted a courier company in Mumbai through which an entire confidential file relating to policy on foreign direct investment/foreign institutional investor was recovered.
The courier was allegedly sent by Ashok Kumar Singh to Gandhi. By accessing in advance foreign investment policies under consideration of the Government, the beneficiary corporate houses got ample leg room to prepare themselves for the policies when they were fully operationalised.