Oil Ministry leaks: 5 corporate executives held in espionage case - Economic Times

NEW DELHI: The corporate espionage case escalated in dramatic fashion late on Friday evening with the arrest of five executives of Reliance Industries Ltd, ADAG, Essar, Cairn & Jubilant Energy. Before their arrest, these officials had been questioned for over 24 hours, police sources said.

Shailesh Saxena of RIL, Vinay Kumar of Essar, KK Naik of Cairn, Subhash Chandra of Jubilant Energy and Rishi Anand of Reliance Power were taken into custody on the ground that they were the alleged recipients of documents reportedly stolen from the petroleum ministry.

Some senior bureaucrats are also expected to be questioned in the case, police sources added. In all, 12 persons have been arrested so far.

A large volume of documents, enough to fill up two sacks, according to police sources, were also recovered from the offices and residence of the two consultants arrested earlier in the day. The official papers include files pertaining to the finance and defence ministries as well as a note from Nripendra Misra, the principal secretary to the PM.

The police said a diary has also been recovered with records of transactions made by Prayas Jain, one of the arrested consultants, regarding the corporate espionage racket, sources said.

There is also speculation that bugs may have been found during a sweep carried out recently in rooms of senior officials of the petroleum ministry. Police sources said removal of two senior officials from the petroleum ministry recently also had a connection with the constant leakage of documents.

"We are not aware of the circumstances in which one of our junior employees has allegedly been arrested," a spokesperson for Reliance Power said.

"We will ensure full cooperation with the investigative agencies. The company adheres to the highest standards of corporate governance, and does not support any unlawful practices," the spokesperson said. Rishi Anand is a DGM in the company, which is a part of the Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group (ADAG).

Reliance Industries said it has been brought to the company's notice that one personnel has been detained by law-enforcement authorities. "We are unaware of more details. An internal probe is under way as per our robust internal standards. The matter is under investigation as per law and we are determined to cooperate in every possible manner. We are already in International Arbitration with the said ministry on all important matters. Our only expectation is a fair and expeditious resolution of our legal rights and contentions by the Arbitrators," a company official said. An Essar spokesperson declined to comment. Vinay Kumar is a DGM in Essar.