May 22, 2025 06:39 am (IST)
Follow us:
facebook-white sharing button
twitter-white sharing button
instagram-white sharing button
youtube-white sharing button
ED accuses Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi of cheating, money laundering in National Herald case | 'Russia, Ukraine will immediately start negotiations for ceasefire': Donald Trump after call with Putin | 'Jill and I have learned that we are strongest in the broken places': Joe Biden on cancer diagnosis | Rahul Gandhi targets Jaishankar over Op. Sindoor again, BJP says LoP speaking Pak language | Supreme Court orders SIT probe into Madhya Pradesh minister's remarks on Colonel Sofiya Qureshi | Bengaluru: Woman killed after wall collapses on her after heavy rainfall | Pak forces targeted Golden Temple after India conducted Operation Sindoor: Army | YouTuber Jyoti Malhotra, arrested for 'espionage', travelled to Pakistan ahead of Pahalgam attack | Centre picks Shashi Tharoor to head all-party delegation for 'exposing' Pak-backed terrorism globally | Rape convict, survivor express willingness to get married; exchange flowers in Supreme Court

Theft of documents happening for long : Rajnath Singh

| | Feb 21, 2015, at 08:43 pm
New Delhi, Feb 21 (IBNS) Asserting that "no guilty person will be spared,"in the petroleum document leak case, Home minister Rajnath Singh on Saturday said the theft of classified documents from government ministries had been happening "for a long time".

"No guilty person would be spared and strictest punishment would be given to them," Singh told reporters while speaking on the arrest of  government employees and top  corporate executives in connection with the  theft of documents from the ministry of petroleum and natural gas.


"...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. If we were not alert, these things would not have come to light," he said.


On Thursday, police arrested five people - two petroleum ministry employees and three others - for stealing documents and leaking them to corporate houses.

With seven arrests on Friday, the total number of those held rose to 12.

According to the police complaint, the stolen documents included inputs for the Union Budget 2015 and a letter concerning the Prime Minister's Office. The documents were also related to the power and coal ministries, police said.


Those arrested include five corporate executives -Shailesh Saxena of Reliance Industries Ltd, Vinay Kumar of Essar, KK Naik of Cairns, Subhash Chandra of Jubilant Energy and Rishi Anand of ADAG Reliance.


Replying a question, Singh did not rule out that middlemen and government officials were in cahoots and more ministries could be investigated. "It is possible. I am not ruling out any possibility. Delhi Police is investigating the whole issue. I think the issue will come to light very soon," he said.


Meanwhile, Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, on his part, said Delhi Police should now zero in on the "top people" benefiting from the leak.


"Compliments (to the) Delhi Police for busting espionage racket. During interrogation, police should try to reach top
people, who would benefit from leaked info," he tweeted.

The ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Friday had demanded setting up of a commission to probe the matter in a time-bound manner.

Support Our Journalism

We cannot do without you.. your contribution supports unbiased journalism

IBNS is not driven by any ism- not wokeism, not racism, not skewed secularism, not hyper right-wing or left liberal ideals, nor by any hardline religious beliefs or hyper nationalism. We want to serve you good old objective news, as they are. We do not judge or preach. We let people decide for themselves. We only try to present factual and well-sourced news.

Support objective journalism for a small contribution.
Close menu