Investigations into document thefts from ministries have widened with the arrest of two persons from the Ministry of Environment and Forests and the UPSC. The arrested persons were allegedly procuring documents illegally from the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas.
What has come as a shock to the investigators is the fact that the two have allegedly indulged in the illegal activity for 15 years.
No official documents from the Ministry of Environment and Forests have, however, been stolen or leaked, the police said. The accused men, according to the police, were able to make Rs. 1-2 lakh per month by selling documents to private petro firms.
The arrested persons are accused of providing documents to Lokesh Sharma, who was arrested in the case for his involvement in procuring official documents from the Ministries of Petroleum and Natural Gas and Coal in Shastri Bhavan and the Ministry of Power with the help of his associates in connivance with some staff.
The persons arrested on Thursday have been identified as Jitender Nagpal and Vipan Kumar. “Jitender Nagpal, PS to Joint Secretary in the Forest and Environment Ministry, and Vipan Kumar, PA to a UPSC member, were arrested on Thursday morning,” Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime) Ravindra Yadav said.
“Vipan was earlier posted at the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas and he was getting secret documents with the help of his contacts mainly from there. Nagpal and Vipan used to provide stolen documents to Lokesh, arrested in the second FIR that was filed on February 20,” he added.
Nagpal has mostly served in Ministry of Law, from 1994-2007, with a short stint of two years in the Ministry of Chemical & Fertilizers. He is alleged to have procured the documents from Vipan Kumar and others.
Nagpal and Vipan have been arrested in connection with the second FIR in which five people were named earlier, including Lokesh. With the arrest of Lokesh, the Crime Branch busted the second module in the corporate espionage case.
“The arrested persons have disclosed that they had been indulging in this illegal activity for many years. They shared a common e-mail Id which was being used to forward documents to some of their clients,” Mr. Yadav said.
They were produced in court and have been remanded in police custody for five days. Sources said that with the arrest of the duo, at least two more consultancy firms have come under the scanner, and raids are being conducted to nab their proprietors who are on the run. So far, three consultancy firms, one each related to Santanu Saikia, Prayas Jain and Lokesh Sharma, have been found involved in the racket.
“They have told us about some consultancy firms. They gave documents to these consultancy firms, one of which has already come to our notice. We are looking into this matter and are trying to corroborate things,” Delhi Police Commissioner BS Bassi said.
The role of some other persons is being examined and a thorough investigation into all aspects is in progress, the police said.
Cracking down on a suspected case of corporate espionage, the Delhi Police, last Thursday, arrested two junior Oil Ministry officials and three other middlemen for allegedly leaking classified government documents to energy companies.
On Friday, two energy consultants Santanu Saikia and Prayas Jain and five senior executives from top energy firms — Shailesh Saxena from RIL, Vinay Kumar from Essar, KK Naik from Cairns, Subhash Chandra from Jubilant Energy and Rishi Anand from ADAG Reliance — were arrested. A total of 16 people have been arrested in connection with the two FIRs by the Crime Branch so far.
