Corporate espionage: Police custody extended for two men

A court here on Thursday extended till March 21 the police custody of two people allegedly involved in the leakage and sale of confidential government documents.

Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) Special Judge S.C. Rajan allowed the probe agency to quiz chartered accountant Khemchand Gandhi and Paresh Chimanlal Buddhadev, a partner in private firm Chitale Associates, till March 21.The probe agency, while seeking custodial interrogation of both the accused, told the court that they have to be confronted with other suspects in the case.

The CBI also named Reliance Industries ltd. (RIl) vice president (finance) K.V. Mohanan, and Rajendra Chitale of Mumbai-based law firm Chitale and Associates as "suspects" in the case. The agency said quizzing of Gandhi and Buddhadev will help them unearth the larger conspiracy as a huge amount of money was paid to various people in the case and the agency was ascertaining their identities.

Meanwhile, the court sent the other four government employees -- Ashok Kumar Singh, lala Ram Sharma, Daljeet Singh and Ram Niwas -- to 14 days' judicial custody.The six were presented before the court in connection with the leakage and sale of confidential government documents stolen from various ministries.

Daljeet Singh, an upper division clerk in the department of industrial policy and promotion (DIPP), was arrested from his hideout in the capital on Monday. The CBI has alleged that Daljeet Singh was allegedly providing confidential documents to his counterparts in the finance ministry who in turn were giving them away to the Mumbai-based chartered accountant, and later passed to various corporate houses.

The CBI on March 12 had filed a case and raided eight places, including offices of various ministries and private establishments, in New Delhi and Mumbai, and arrested the under secretary in the disinvestment and grievances department, Ashok Kumar Singh, along with the section officer of the economic affairs department, lala Ram Sharma.

Gandhi was arrested from Mumbai during the raid conducted by the CBI. Investigators said Daljeet Singh used to provide documents of the commerce ministry to Ashok Kumar and lala Ram who passed them to Gandhi. The CBI had on March 13 arrested two more people -- Ram Niwas, an assistant in the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) under the finance ministry, along with Paresh Chimanlal Buddhadev.

The probe agency also revealed the the alleged role of a representative of PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), a multi-national firm which provides tax and consulting services, and was being probed. PwC, which has offices in over 150 countries, said in a statement later that its manager met CBI officials and gave necessary clarifications.