Press Trust Of India
New Delhi, Feb 21: A key accused in the corporate espionage case Saturday claimed it was a Rs 10,000 crore scam that he was trying to uncover as police said documents seized from corporate executives related to “national security” that can attract Official Secrets Act provisions.
Meanwhile, a local court remanded the five arrested corporate executives in police custody till February 24 for further questioning. Delhi Police also conducted raids here and in Noida looking for stolen documents from offices of petroleum companies.
Santanu Saikia, a former journalist, now running an energy consultant website, told reporters outside a Crime Branch office that it was a Rs 10,000crore scam, which he was trying to uncover. ‘‘Please quote me,’’ he said as policemen took him in for interrogation.
Reacting to his claim, Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said Saikia was saying such things for covering up his own defence.
‘‘Let him spill out all the information he has. The primary accusation is that somebody stole the papers from the ministry. Police are investigating,’’ he said.
Pradhan said police is doing an independent job and everything will be clear after investigation. Law will take its course, whoever they may be, he said when asked about the arrest of executives of private companies.
Producing the five corporate executives arrested Friday before chief metropolitan magistrate Sanjay Khanagwal, the police said, ‘‘National interest was taken for a ride in the case. Documents related to national security have also been recovered.”
The five – Shailesh Saxena from RIL, Vinay Kumar from Essar, KK Naik from Cairns, Subhash Chandra from Jubilant Energy and Rishi Anand from Reliance ADAG – were produced in the court in police custody till February 24 for further questioning.
The police told the court they have to consult the concerned ministries regarding the documents which have been recovered from the accused and their interrogation was required to confront them with the same.
