Documents leak case: Six accused get bail

A court here on Tuesday granted bail to six people, including former journalist Santanu Saikia and four executives of private firms, who stand accused in the petroleum ministry documents leak case.

Additional Sessions Judge G.S. Saini granted bail to the six accused and asked them to furnish a personal bond of Rs.50,000 each and a surety of a like amount.

The six accused who were granted bail were Saikia who runs a web portal, RIl corporate affairs manager Shailesh Saxena, Essar deputy general manager Vinay Kumar, Reliance ADAG deputy general manager Rishi Anand, Cairns India general manager K.K. Nayak, and Virender Kumar, who was employed as a casual worker in the defence ministry.

On April 30, a court granted bail to Jubilant Energy's official Subhash Chandra. On the ground of parity that Chandra was out on bail, defence counsel of the other six accused sought bail and said Delhi Police have not invoked charges under the Official Secrets Act in the charge sheet.

Citing the charge sheet, defence counsel of the executives of Reliance Group and Essar apprised the court that no document marked secret or confidential was found in their possession.

However, Delhi Police opposed the bail plea. Police had formally charged 13 people under various sections dealing with cheating, forgery, trespass, theft, common intent and criminal conspiracy on April 18.

Prayas Jain, a Melbourne-based energy consultant, was also charged by Delhi Police in the case with the other accused lalta Prasad and Rakesh Kumar, both brothers and residents of Delhi, Ghaziabad resident Rajkumar Chaubey, and government employees Asharam and Ishwar Singh.

Delhi Police registered a first information report (FIR) over the leak of classified documents related to various ministries, including petroleum and natural gas, on February 17.