Corporate espionage case: GMR official quizzed by police

New Delhi: A senior official of GMR Energy was called on Monday for questioning by the Delhi Police in the sensational corporate espionage case even as hunt was on for absconding members of some consultancy firms in this connection.

With another energy firm coming under the scanner, Delhi Police Commissioner B S Bassi clarified that the Crime Branch, which is probing the case, has not yet questioned any CEOs.

"We have received information about involvement of some other people from the arrested ones and we have called them for questioning. Some of them are absconding and we are looking for them. Some have been summoned for questioning but we haven't questioned any CEOs yet," he said.

Rajbir Singh (Manager) Corporate Relations at GMR Energy Limited was called for questioning at the Interstate Cell of the Delhi Police Crime Branch at Chanakyapuri.

"GMR employee Rajbir Singh has also been called for questioning and we are still in talks with other people. Couple of them are on the run and efforts are on to nab them. Those who ran away are primarily members of consulting companies," said Bassi.

Asked about the nature of the documents under its custody and whether police was planning to slap Official Secrets Act (OSA) in this connection, he said, "Some documents have been recovered, we are examining them, they are being examined in consultation with respective ministries so that the importance of the documents can be ascertained."

Sixteen people have been arrested in this case, which continues to throw up new names everyday. Police have registered two separate FIRs in this case. While 13 people have been arrested in the first FIR, three have been held in the second case.

On February 26, police had arrested two officials of the Environment Ministry and UPSC. They were identified as Jitender Nagpal (40), PS to Joint Secretary in Forest and Environment ministry and Vipan Kumar (42), PA to a UPSC member.

The two were arrested under the second FIR in which five people were named earlier including Lokesh Sharma, an energy consultant of Noida-based Infraline consultancy firm who was apprehended on February 24 by the Crime Branch busting the second module in the corporate espionage case.

Cracking down on a major case of corporate espionage, Delhi Police had on February 19 arrested two junior Oil Ministry officials and three other middlemen for allegedly

leaking classified government documents to energy companies.

On February 20, two energy consultants Santanu Saikia and Prayas Jain and five senior executives from top energy firms - Shailesh Saxena from RIL, Vinay Kumar from Essar, KK Naik from Cairns, Subhash Chandra from Jubilant Energy and Rishi Anand from ADAG Reliance - were arrested.

Virendra Kumar, a casual worker in the Defence Ministry, was arrested on February 24 for allegedly providing forged identity card to a key accused in the first FIR.