The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has stepped in to the corporate espionage case, and detained three people, including one chartered accountant in Mumbai and two Union finance ministry officials.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has stepped in to the corporate espionage case, and detained three people, including one chartered accountant in Mumbai and two Union finance ministry officials.
The scandal involves leaking out sensational documents by a few corporates in collusion with government officials from various ministries.
According to CBI sources, the three people who have been detained include Mumbai-based chartered accountant Khemchand Gandhi and two officials in Delhi – Lala Ram in the department of economic affairs and Ashok Kumar in the department of disinvestment and grievances.
The CBI has unearthed an organised racket of corporate espionage, where custodians of classified foreign investments related to government policy documents were being sold to corporates.
"The agency has raided six places in Delhi and a couple of locations in Mumbai to investigate the alleged sale of information by government officials. This relates to documents and information leaked from the ministry of finance for financial gains," a top officials of CBI told dna.
"The CBI's probe is separate from the one conducted by the Delhi police, the agency suspects the involvement of top officials also, unlike juniors in the Delhi police net," said sources.
So far, the CBI has seized cash Rs 60 lakh in cash, hard disks, sensitive documents and laptops.
Gandhi has been accused of getting sensitive documents from various government officers and passing them on to corporate houses. Cash worth Rs 60 lakh was reportedly recovered from Gandhi's office.
CBI sources said the documents were being sold by under secretaries and section officers, and companies interested in foreign investments came to know about policies in advance.
Last month, the Delhi police blew the lid off corporate espionage in the petroleum ministry. It has so far arrested 17 people, including government officials, energy consultants and senior executives of top energy companies.
The Delhi police on Thursday told the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate that documents recovered from the arrested persons in the corporate espionage case was being analysed to unearth a "deep-rooted nexus" involving several persons who were "trespassing" into the petroleum ministry offices.
Investigators made the submission while opposing the bail plea of three corporate executives -- Shailesh Saxena from RIL, Vinay Kumar from Essar and Subhash Chandra from Jubilant Energy.
"If the accused are released at this stage, they may influence the witnesses and tamper with the evidence, which may adversely affect the investigation" investigating officer (IO) told the magistrate.
The next hearing on the bail applications is on March 16.
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