Two more arrested including a former journalist in Corporate espionage in Petroleum Ministry

By Shakti Nayak
20 Feb, New Delhi (odibizinfo)

Delhi Police arrested two energy consultants , one being a former journalist, in connection with espionage in Petroleum Ministry . More arrests are likely.

The number of arrests in the case has gone up to seven, including four multi-tasking officers of the Petroleum ministry.
Delhi Police Commissioner, B S Bassi told reporters that police have arrested Prayas Jain and a former journalist, Shantanu Saikia in this connection.
Both of them are energy consultants who received the stolen documents. They will be produced in court today after medical examination.
Bassi said the investigation is on and the classified documents have to be examined in consultation with concerned officers.
Police said preliminary investigation revealed that CCTV camera’s fitted in the Petroleum Ministry have been damaged and Joint Secretary and some director’s rooms have been found broken into.

The police had Thursday arrested two Oil Ministry officials, a Reliance Industries, RIL staffer and two other middlemen for allegedly leaking classified government documents to energy companies for money.

The Delhi Police has now formed an SIT to investigate the ongoing case of corporate espionage. The police have also raided the offices of a few companies and seized documents and hard drives.
Meanwhile , police has lodged cases on the charges of of theft, forgery and trespassing against the accused. Police is also quizzing officials or RIL, ADAG and ESSAR .

Sensitive government documents with details of policies on oil exploration, pricing and imports were allegedly passed on to lobbyists, energy companies and consultants.
The men involved in the document theft allegedly used duplicate keys and fake IDs and passes to enter the oil ministry. Reacting to the development, petroleum minister Dharmendra Pradhan said strict action will be taken against those involved.