Espionage in Petroluem Ministry : Strictest punishment for guilty says Rajnath

21 Feb, New Delhi

The Government of India Saturday said that all those found guilty in connection with the leakage of classified documents from the Petroleum Ministry, will not be spared.

Talking to reporters on the sidelines of a function in New Delhi, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh said that Delhi Police is investigating the matter and the whole truth will come out. Strictest punishment would be given to the guilty , he said.

When asked, whether such type of cases have also been reported from other Ministries, the Home Minister said that if the government were not alert, then the case relating to the Petroleum Ministry would also not have come to the fore.
Meanwhile the number of arrest by Delhi in connection with the corporate espionage case has gone up to 12 including five senior executives of top energy firms. The officials are -Shailesh Saxena, Manager, Corporate Affairs of Reliance Industries, Vinay Kumar, Deputy General Manager of Essar, Subhash Chandra, Senior Executive of Jubilant Energy, KK Naik, General Manager of Cairns India, and Rishi Anand, Deputy General Manager of Reliance ADAG.
Police sources said, these officials have been categorised as receivers of stolen property. They either bought or demanded papers from the men who were arrested earlier in the case.

Besides the 5 executives, Santanu Saikia, who runs energy portals, and Prayas Jain, an energy consultant were also arrested Saturday . They have been sent to police custody until 23rd of this month along with two others Rakesh Kumar and Lalta Prasad. Kumar and Prasad were arrested earlier.
Three others – government employees Asharam and Ishwar Singh, and driver Raj Kumar Chaubey are already in judicial custody for 14 days.