However, these arrests may be the tip of the proverbial iceberg. Saikia, who runs an energy portal, was arrested after overnight questioning. Many more journalists are being grilled, it is understood.
The men involved in the pilferage were allegedly using duplicate keys and fake IDs and passes to enter the oil ministry.
Two executives of two big industrial houses are also being quizzed. The police have also swooped down on the offices of a few companies and seized documents and hard drives.
With that the lid is off a corporate espionage ring in the Union Petroleum Ministry, which is the nodal agency for policy decisions on oil pricing and imports. The arrests have come on budget eve and have added a serious dimension to the leaks.
These so-called ‘moles’ of a big industrial house were unearthed when two lower-rung employees of the Petroleum Ministry and three middlemen were caught red-handed making copies of the classified budget-related documents. It is understood that a trap had been laid for them.
However, the corporate recipients of the leaks were not named by the ministry in view of the sensitivities involved.
The arrests, oil ministry sources told a TV channel, were aimed at reassuring foreign investors who had grown wary of making presentations in the ministry. Sensitive information was being leaked “within minutes of presentations,” it is claimed.
The ‘moles,’ which included a peon and a clerk, are being interrogated to ferret out names of their corporate patrons who were being passed on the confidential documents, Police Commissioner Bhim Sain Bassi said. Apparently, the espionage ring had been operating even under the UPA regime.
The latest leaks relate to some classified information on proposals related to the petroleum ministry that were reportedly sought by a top corporate house dealing with oil.
In view of the sensitivities involved, the investigators have been told to put everything under the wraps on a request from the Finance Ministry and not to provide any details to the media.
Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said he had ordered an investigation into how official secrets had become available in public domain for the past few months.
He refused to share information on what information had been leaked while asserting that “I won’t allow espionage to happen in my ministry.”
The Crime Branch of Delhi Police was handed over the case after the sources of leaks were identified and actionable evidence generated, the minister added.
