Headlines
FIR says budget document among leaked papers, 7 more arrested
New Delhi, Feb 20
The sensational petroleum
ministry document leakage case assumed wider dimensions Friday as seven
more people, including a former journalist, an energy consultant and
officials of corporate entities, were arrested during the day. The
police complaint said the papers stolen included inputs for the
forthcoming union budget and a letter relating to the PMO.
The stolen documents were also related to the power and coal ministries, police said.
Delhi
Police earlier Friday arrested Santanu Saikia, who runs a web portal
for his alleged role in providing secret documents of the petroleum
ministry to corporate houses. Prayas Jain, a Melbourne-based energy
consultant, was also arrested.
Police later in the evening arrested five senior officials of corporate entities.
Those
arrested were RIL corporate affairs manager Shailesh Saxena, Jubilant
Energy senior executive Subash Chandra, Reliance ADAG DGM Rishi Anand,
Essar DGM Vinay and Cairns India GM K.K. Naik.
They said the five executives were booked under sections dealing with criminal conspiracy and use of stolen property.
With the seven arrests Friday, the total number of arrests in the case went up to 12.
Saikia is a former journalist who covered, among other areas, crime and petroleum ministry. Later, he came an energy consultant.
Delhi
Police chief B.S. Bassi said earlier in the day that Saikia and Jain
ran an independent website where they uploaded the analysis of the
documents which were photocopies of the originals.
"And this
information was further used by corporate houses. They also shared this
information with some individuals in return for money," Bassi told
reporters.
He, however, refused to reveal the names of the organisations which benefitted from it.
"It
will not be good to reveal the names of these organisations as the
investigation is still on." Police officers, however, said they were
questioning officials of RIL and Essar groups.
Delhi Police
Thursday arrested five people - two petroleum ministry employees and
three others - for stealing documents and leaking them to corporate
houses.
Rakesh Kumar, 30, Lalta Prasad, 36 - both brothers and
residents of Delhi, and Raj Kumar Chaubey, 39, a resident of Ghaziabad
in Uttar Pradesh, were held red-handed with photocopies of some secret
documents in Shastri Bhawan Feb 17.
Based on information provided
by them, government employees Asharam, 58, and Ishwar Singh, 56 were
also arrested. They were part of the multi-tasking staff (MTS) in
Shastri Bhawan.
Police said Lalta Prasad and Rakesh Kumar were on the payroll of Jain and he used to pay them Rs.40,000 each per month.
The
first information report (FIR) filed Wednesday accessed by the media
Friday details the photocopies of documents recovered from the five
people initially arrested in the case.
Some of the documents are latest and have been signed only this week.
Among
the photocopied documents is a monthly gas report of December 2014 of
the planning and analysis cell of the ministry. It was signed Feb 16.
There is a letter of Nripendra Misra, principal secretary to the prime minister.
The
photocopied documents also included "inputs material on natural gas
grid for inclusion in Finance Minister Arun Jaitley's budget speech for
2015-16", police said.
The budget is regarded as a top secret document till it is unveiled by the finance minister in parliament.
The information about leakage of budget inputs has come three days before the commencement of the budget session of parliament.
Police
also said Friday that documents relating to the power and coal
ministries were also recovered from the people arrested initially.
Bassi said Friday that Lalta Prasad and Rakesh Kumar lifted documents indiscriminately.
"The
arrested people (Kumar and Prasad) did not steal particular documents.
They instead used to lift any document lying on the table," he said.
The
theft of documents was taking place in the office of the ministry
located in the high-security Shastri Bhawan near the Parliament House
complex.
The FIR details how the "secret papers" were photocopied
after office hours by the arrested who used duplicate keys to open the
offices after entering Shastri Bhawan on forged identity cards and
temporary passes obtained fraudulently.
Meanwhile, a Reliance
Industries official said the company has launched a "robust internal
probe" into detention of one of its employees by Delhi Police in
connection with alleged official document theft in the oil ministry.
The company is determined to cooperate with the police probe in every possible was, he added.
Congress
party leaders Friday targeted Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan
over his remarks that hinted at espionage in the ministry allegedly
having taken place during the UPA regime and demanded an apology from
him.
New Delhi, Feb 20
The sensational petroleum
ministry document leakage case assumed wider dimensions Friday with the
arrest of a former journalist and an energy consultant and revelations
in the police complaint that the papers stolen included inputs for the
forthcoming union budget and a letter relating to the PMO.
The stolen documents were also related to the power and coal ministries, police said.
Delhi
Police earlier Friday arrested Santanu Saikia, who runs a web portal
and covered the crime beat for several years, for his alleged role in
providing secret documents of the petroleum ministry to corporate
houses.
Prayas Jain, a Melbourne-based energy consultant, was also arrested.
Delhi
Police chief B.S. Bassi said Saikia and Jain ran an independent website
where they uploaded the analysis of the documents which were
photocopies of the originals.
"And this information was further
used by corporate houses. They also shared this information with some
individuals in return for money," Bassi told reporters.
He, however, refused to reveal the names of the organisations which benefitted from it.
"It will not be good to reveal the names of these organisations as the investigation is still on."
Delhi
Police Thursday arrested five people -- two petroleum ministry
employees and three others -- for stealing documents and leaking them to
corporate houses.
Rakesh Kumar, 30, Lalta Prasad, 36 -- both
brothers and residents of Delhi, and Raj Kumar Chaubey, 39, a resident
of Ghaziabad in Uttar Pradesh, were held red-handed with photocopies of
some secret documents in Shastri Bhawan Feb 17.
Based on
information provided by them, government employees Asharam, 58, and
Ishwar Singh, 56 were also arrested. They were part of the multi-tasking
staff (MTS) in Shastri Bhawan.
Police said Lalta Prasad and Rakesh Kumar were on the payroll of Jain and he used to pay them Rs.40,000 each per month.
The
first information report (FIR) filed Wednesday but which was accessed
by the media Friday details the photocopies of documents recovered from
the five people initially arrested in the case.
Some of the documents are latest and have been signed only this week.
Among
the photocopied documents is a monthly gas report of December 2014 of
the planning and analysis cell of the ministry. It was signed Feb 16.
There is a letter of Nripendra Misra, principal secretary to the prime minister.
The
photocopied documents also included "inputs material on natural gas
grid for inclusion in Finance Minister Arun Jaitley's budget speech for
2015-16", police said.
The budget is regarded as a top secret document till it is unveiled by the finance minister in parliament.
The information about leakage of budget inputs has come three days before the commencement of the budget session of parliament.
Police
also said Friday that documents relating to the power and coal
ministries were also recovered from the people arrested initially.
Police said they were questioning officials of RIL and Essar groups.
Bassi said Friday that Lalta Prasad and Rakesh Kumar lifted documents indiscriminately.
"The
arrested people (Kumar and Prasad) did not steal particular documents.
They instead used to lift any document lying on the table," he said.
The
theft of documents was taking place in the office of the ministry
located in the high-security Shastri Bhawan near the Parliament House
complex.
All the seven arrested so far have been charged under
sections of the IPC relating to stealing, forgery, trespass and criminal
conspiracy, Bassi said.
Police are also mulling whether the
arrested people can be booked under the Official Secrets Act. Crime
Branch officials had also taken the five accused to Shastri Bhawan to
recreate the scene.
The FIR details how the "secret papers" were
photocopied after office hours by the arrested who used duplicate keys
to open the offices after entering Shastri Bhawan on forged identity
cards and temporary passes obtained fraudulently.