Espionage case: 'Culprits will not be spared,' says Rajnath

New Delhi: Home Minister Rajnath Singh said that those involved in the sensational corporate espionage scandal would not be spared and strictest punishment would be given to them.

The Delhi Police investigation in the case will soon unravel everything, he said.

"Jaldhi doodh ka doodh, paani ka paani ho jayega (Soon everything will be clear). No guilty person would be spared and strictest punishment would be given to them," he told reporters on the sideline of a function on Saturday.

The Home Minister also did not rule out nexus of middlemen and some government officials in the espionage case and indicated expanding the probe to other Ministries.

"It is possible. I am not ruling out any possibility. Delhi Police investigating the whole issue. I think the issue will come to light very soon," he said replying to a question on involvement of middlemen.

"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," he said.

Singh said it is a matter of satisfaction that the espionage case has been unravelled by the NDA government. "If we were not alert, these things would not have come to light," he said.

Five senior executives from top energy firms and two consultants were among those arrested on Friday in the sensational corporate espionage scandal in which classified documents including an input for upcoming Finance Minister's budget speech were allegedly leaked.

A total of 12 people have been so far arrested in the case.

The Delhi Police, which is probing the case, reports to the Home Ministry.

The arrested people will be produced in a local court here this afternoon and Delhi Police will seek their custody for further interrogation.

The five persons who were arrested by the Crime Branch last night have been identified as Shailesh Saxena from RIL, Vinay Kumar from Essar, KK Naik from Cairns, Subhash Chandra from Jubilant Energy and Rishi Anand from ADAG Reliance.

"They would be produced before a magistrate and we will seek their custody for custodial interrogation," said a senior police official.

We need to know since how long this has been going on and who all benefited from it, he added.

According to police, all these company executives were receivers of the stolen documents, which have been recovered by police teams during raids from their establishments.

Saxena is Manager, corporate affairs, Reliance Industries Limited (RIL); Chandra is senior executive, Jubilant Energy; Anand is DGM, Reliance ADAG; Vinay is DGM, Essar and Naik is GM, Cairns India.

They have been booked under IPC sections 120 B (criminal conspiracy) and 411 (dishonestly receiving stolen property).

The whole scandal turned murkier yesterday as it came to fore that classified documents including an input for upcoming Finance Minister's Budget speech were allegedly leaked.

The alleged pilfering of 'secret' documents, which was thought to have been a racket confined to the Petroleum ministry, actually covered matters in finance, coal and power ministries, Delhi Police said.