New Delhi: A Delhi court on Saturday remanded five corporate executives in police custody till February 24, 2015 in the Petroleum Ministry documents leak case.
Earlier, while seeking their custody, Delhi Police claimed that documents recovered from the five corporate executives, arrested in connection with the case, are related to “national security aspect” and charges under the Official Secrets Act might also be invoked in the matter.
The Crime Branch of Delhi Police produced the five accused before Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Sanjay Khanagwal and sought their custodial interrogation for five days.
“National interest was taken for a ride in the case. Documents related to national security have also been recovered. This may attract charges under the Offical Secrets Act,” the police told the court which will pass the order on custodial interrogation later.
The five accused who were produced in the court are Shailesh Saxena, manager, corporate affairs, Reliance Industries Limited; Vinay Kumar, DGM, Essar; K.K. Naik, GM, Cairn India; Mr. Chandra, senior executive, Jubilant Energy; and Rishi Anand, DGM, Reliance ADAG.
The police told the court that they have to consult the Ministries concerned regarding the documents which have been recovered from the possession of the accused and their custodial interrogation was required to confront them with the same.
The police also told the court that these five accused were procuring these sensitive documents at the behest of their senior officials, some of whom might be interrogated in the ongoing investigation.
The advocates appearing for these five accused vehemently opposed the police plea seeking five days police custody, contending that their clients have been illegally detained since February 18 and 19.
The defence counsel also contended that there was nothing to be recovered from their clients and the police have not told the court regarding the specific allegations against these accused.
With the arrest of these five accused, the total number of arrests in the case rose to 12. Seven others were produced in the court yesterday out of whom four were sent to police custody till February 23 and three were remanded to judicial custody for two weeks.
Jubilant Energy’s Noida office raided
Intensifying its probe into the sensational corporate espionage scandal, Delhi Police Crime Branch on Saturday raided the office of a petrochemical company in Noida after it searched the office of arrested energy consultant Prayas Jain.
Police sources said that Subhash Chandra, a senior executive with Jubilant Energy, who was arrested along with four other top officials of energy companies on Friday, was taken to Mr. Jain’s office in the morning.
After searching Mr. Jain’s office, the police team took him to the Noida office of Jubilant Energy. His office and some other rooms were searched by the police to recover stolen documents.
Asked about the issue, Delhi Police Commissioner B.S. Bassi said, “We have searched places which were necessary for the course of investigation. We may further raid places as our aim is to reach the bottom of the whole thing.”
“We had arrested five persons. There interrogation is going on. They will be produced before a local court. We’ll request court to send them to police custody, so we can further interrogate them,” Mr. added Bassi.
The Delhi Police chief also said that investigation is on in the case and it will end only when a charge sheet will be filed.
“We need to know since how long this has been going on and who all benefited from it,” said a senior official.
According to police, all these executives allegedly received stolen documents which have been recovered by police teams during raids from their establishments.
They have been booked under IPC sections 120 B (criminal conspiracy) and 411 (dishonestly receiving stolen property).
The whole issue turned murkier on Friday as it came to the fore that classified documents including an input for the Finance Minister’s Budget speech were allegedly leaked.
The alleged pilfering of “secret” documents, which was thought to have been a racket confined to the Petroleum Ministry, actually covered matters in Finance, Coal and Power Ministries, Delhi Police said.
The total number of arrests in the case unearthed on Thursday has risen to 12.
On Thursday, five persons, including two Oil Ministry staffers and three middlemen were arrested. Two energy consultants — Santanu Saikia, a former journalist, now running a petro web portal and Mr. Jain — were arrested on Friday morning while the five company executives were arrested in the evening.
The case FIR, produced in a local court on Friday said an input on the National Gas Grid for the Finance Minister’s Budget speech of 2015-16 is among the various “secret” documents recovered from the accused.
