Guilty will not be spared: Rajnath
Shaurya Karanbir Gurung
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, February 21
Home Minister Rajnath Singh today said that those involved in the sensational corporate espionage scandal would not be spared and strictest punishment would be given to them. The Delhi Police investigation in the case will soon unravel everything, he said.
"Jaldhi doodh ka doodh, paani ka paani ho jayega (Soon everything will be clear). No guilty person would be spared and strictest punishment would be given to them," he told reporters on the sideline of a function here.
The Home Minister also did not rule out nexus of middlemen and some government officials in the espionage case and indicated expanding the probe to other Ministries.
"It is possible. I am not ruling out any possibility. Delhi Police investigating the whole issue. I think the issue will come to light very soon," he said replying to a question on involvement of middlemen.
"But it is certain that such things have been going on for a long time and that is why the situation has reached such a stage," he said.
Singh said it is a matter of satisfaction that the espionage case has been unravelled by the NDA government. "If we were not alert, these things would not have come to light," he said.
Meanwhile, the 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 yesterday, was taken to Jain's office in the morning.
After searching 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."
On Friday, five senior executives from top energy firms and two consultants were arrested in the sensational corporate espionage scandal in which classified documents, including an input for upcoming Finance Minister's Budget speech, were allegedly leaked.
With this, the total number of arrests in the case busted yesterday rose to 12.
The five who were arrested on Friday night by the Crime Branch have been identified as Shailesh Saxena, manager, corporate affairs, Reliance Industries Limited (RIL); Vinay Kumar, DGM, Essar; KK Naik, GM, Cairns India; Subhash Chandra, senior executive, Jubilant Energy; and Rishi Anand, DGM, Reliance ADAG.
Earlier today, the police arrested two persons — a journalist Santanu Saikia, now running a petro web portal, and Prayas Jain, a CEO of a consultancy firm called Metis Business Solutions Private Limited. Five arrests were made yesterday.
Sources said that the officials had allegedly procured documents from the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas. “They had used the documents for corporate affairs,” said Ravindra Yadav, Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime).
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 today.
Documents on Sri Lanka, the ONGC Videsh Limited and on the Budget were allegedly stolen by two accused, who have been arrested for selling the documents to consultants, according to the FIR.
The FIR reveals that the documents were recovered by the Delhi Police Crime Branch from the two accused, Lalta Prasad (36) and his brother Rakesh Kumar (30) on the night of February 17 when the two had allegedly “intruded” into Shastri Bhawan in New Delhi, where the offices of the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas are located.
The police had recovered seven documents from Lalta, says the FIR. The police also recovered nine documents from an envelope carried by Rakesh. The documents included photocopies of documents of presentation to Secretary, Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, copy of documents concerning issues in different countries on oil and gas sector and photocopy of documents with input material on National Gas Grid for inclusion in Finance Minister’s Budget speech.
The FIR has been registered under the Indian Penal Code sections 457 (lurking house trespass), 380 (theft), 468 (forgery for cheating), 471 (using as genuine a forged document), 120-B (criminal conspiracy) and 34 (acts done by several persons).
Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Sanjay Khanagwal of the Patiala House Court in central Delhi today remanded Shantanu, Prayas, Lalta and Rakesh in the custody of the Crime Branch until this February 23
The Crime Branch took some of the accused to Shastri Bhawan as part of the investigations.
The police told the court that Santanu and Prayas allegedly bribed Lalta and Rakesh every month for procuring the documents.
"Shantanu and Prayas would analyse the documents and give it to companies", said the police at the court. Police sources said some of the companies that received the documents were Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) and ESSAR, a multinational corporation with investments in steel, energy and infrastructure.
The police are searching for two more men - Bir Singh, who would allegedly switch off the CCTV cameras at Shastri Bhawan before the accused entered the building to steal documents, and another person who like Lalta and Prayas stole the documents and gave it to the consultancy firms.
With PTI inputs
