The corporate espionage case in the petroleum ministry has got bigger with Delhi Police alleging on Friday that classified documents from the coal and power ministries were leaked too by suspects.
The police told a court in Delhi that "incriminating" documents of the coal and power ministries were allegedly found in the possession of the accused, who were supplying these to certain corporate houses for their benefit.
Police sources told Hindustan Times that inputs for the finance minister's budget speech were among the leaked documents.
An input on the National Gas Grid for the budget speech was among the various "secret" documents the police recovered, Press Trust of India reported. The police also recovered a letter of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's principal secretary Nripendra Misra, according to the FIR in the case presented to chief metropolitan magistrate Sanjay Khanagwal, who heard the proceedings for remand of the accused.
Santanu Saikia, a former journalist who runs a web portal on petroleum issues, and Prayas Jain, a Melbourne-based energy consultant; were arrested this morning. They allegedly worked as middlemen between employees in the petroleum ministry, who stole the documents, and corporations that bought them.
Police sources said classified documents were recovered from Saikia's home and the Official Secrets Act may be invoked in the case. The sources said the espionage ring worked in several layers: peons in the ministry stole documents and sold them to consultancy firms, which analysed them and prepared reports for corporations.
Photocopies of various other documents also included one with a heading 'Brief on further opportunities in Sri Lanka dated February 4, 2015'.
The police also recovered from the accused photocopies of papers of Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell on the 'monthly gas report/ December 2014' dated February 16, 2015 signed by Atreyee Das, DG of the cell.
It said photocopies of documents of Exploration Division, Ministry of PNG, signed by Nalin Kumar Srivastava, Deputy Secretary, was also recovered from the accused.
Other materials recovered from the possession of the accused include photocopies of 'background note' on performance of upstream sector and others.
The two arrests came a day after the crime branch of Delhi Police arrested five people, including two clerks of the oil ministry, for allegedly leaking classified documents to energy companies for money. Police also raided the local office of Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) on Thursday and questioned a company employee.
With PTI inputs
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