December 31, 2025 03:46 pm (IST)
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Corporate espionage: Defence Ministry employee arrested
New Delhi, Feb 24 (IBNS): The police on Tuesday arrested a casual staffer of the Defence Ministry in connection with the corporate espionage case.
He was arrested for allegedly providing a forged identity card to a key accused in Petroleum Ministry leaks case.
The police had interrogated the Defence Ministry employee, Virender, for more than six hours on Monday.
Earlier, former journalist Santanu Saikia, arrested in connection with the corporate espionage case on Monday alleged that he was made to sign a blank paper by police.
Saikia was one of the four accused, who were remanded to judicial custody till March 6 by a Delhi court,
"I was made to sign a blank paper, don't know what is happening," Sakkia had claimed as he was being taken to court.
Saikia, who runs an energy portal, was arrested by the Delhi Police on Friday for his alleged involvement in leak of classified government documents from the oil ministry.
Earlier, Saikia had claimed that he had been framed as he was working on a huge scam involving Rs. 10,000 crore.
With one more arrest on Monday, the number of people held in connection with the sensational case rose to 13.
Investigators say documents, including Finance Minister Arun Jaitley's upcoming speech budget were also stolen from the coal and power ministries, and included an input for Finance Minister Arun Jaitley's upcoming budget speech.
The four accused- Lalta Prasad, Rakesh Kumar, Prayas Jain and Shantanu Saikia- were produced before Metropolitan Magistrate Dheeraj Mittal after expiry of their police custody.
The Crime Branch of Delhi Police said they be remanded to 11 days judicial custody as they were not required for further interrogation at this stage.
The investigators on Monday arrested and secured five day custody of Lokesh Sharma, an employee of the petroleum ministry. Sharma allegedly had access to documents and leaked them out.
Those arrested include government officials who were temporary multi-tasking staff in the oil ministry. They used fake identities to enter the building and the documents were either stolen or photocopied.
Police said two diaries seized from Santanu Saikia and Prayas Jain, a Melbourne-based energy consultant, were being examined.
The diaries purportedly contain details regarding the alleged transactions of Saikia and Jain.
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