Two more arrests in document leak case

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SME Times News Bureau | 27 Feb, 2015
Two officials of the environment ministry and the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) were arrested in connection with the official documents leak case, police said Thursday.

Delhi Police have arrested Jatinder Nagpal, who is personal assistant to the joint secretary in the ministry. He was arrested Wednesday night along with Vipan Kumar, who is personal assistant to a member of the UPSC.

Police said both the accused were detained Tuesday for questioning in connection with the petroleum and other ministries' document leakage case, which was unearthed Feb 17 night, with the arrest of two former multi-tasking staff (MTS) employees of Shastri Bhawan.

Police added that Kumar, who was earlier working with the petroleum and natural gas ministry, used to get important/secret documents from his contacts in the ministry, which he had joined as a stenographer in 1996.

Between 1996-2010, Kumar used to steal documents from the ministry with the help from his contacts and passed them on to corporate houses, police said.

Nagpal has also joined service as a stenographer in 1994 at the ministry of law and justice, where he served until 2007. Between 2001-2003, he worked at the ministry of chemicals and fertilizers and used to procure documents from Vipan Kumar, Lokesh Sharma (already arrested earlier) and his other contacts, they added.

"Both (Nagpal and Kumar) disclosed that they have been part of this illegal activity since many years. They shared a common email address which was being used to forward documents to some of their clients," said Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime Branch) Ravindra Yadav.

Yadav said that both were produced in Dwarka Court and have been sent to five days' police custody.

Informed sources said that Nagpal, a resident of west Delhi's Hari Nagar area, was detained two days ago as his name was revealed during the interrogation of Sharma, an employee of a Noida-based energy consultancy Infraline Energy.

Kumar's name also cropped up during Sharma's interrogation.

Sharma, in his 30s, was formerly with the MTS at Shastri Bhawan. A resident of Vijay Nagar in west Delhi's Uttam Nagar area, he was arrested from Dwarka Feb 22. He is currently in judicial custody.

During the interrogation of all the accused, police said that they had got links about some more corporate sectors who were the beneficiaries of these stolen documents.

However, they said the documents were stolen from petroleum, coal and power ministries, and nothing was stolen from the defence and environment ministries.

"In our investigation, we don't have any link about the stealing of documents from the defence and environment ministries...but we got some information that there are some more corporate houses who benefit from these stolen documents," said Delhi Police chief B.S. Bassi.

Bassi added: "Till now they don't have any links with any senior ministry official."

Sources added that both used to provide documents to Sharma and Prayas Jain, an employee of Melbourne-based Metis Energy Consulting and Research Services.

Jain is in judicial custody till March 6. Sources said adding that police would seek custody of both for questioning.

So far, 16 people, including Nagpal and Kumar, have been arrested and Delhi Police have registered two FIRs in connection with the leak of classified documents related to various ministries, including coal, petroleum and natural gas, and power.

Nagpal and Kumar's names are mentioned in the second FIR which was registered Feb 20.