NEW DELHI: Leakgate is getting bigger than what the CBI had initially thought with the agency putting several corporate professionals, middlemen and government officials under the scanner following revelations by those who have been arrested and voice samples collected by it.The CBI has found that papers related to the foreign investment promotion board’s (FIPB) clearance to the Rs 2,058 crore Jet-Etihad deal were leaked from the finance ministry.The deal, which followed an increase in the foreign direct investment limit for airlines from 26% to 49% and allowed foreign carriers to acquire shares of Indian players, went through a series of twists and turns before it was finally cleared.Source told TOI that all important communications between the ministries of finance, civil aviation, FIPB, Sebi and legal documents related to the controversial deal, on which Subramanian Swamy has approached the Supreme Court, were leaked out with the help of ministry officials, private consultants and middlemen.Among the important documents, sources said a copy of the official FIPB clearance order was leaked in July itself. “In this deal, all the papers, file notings, information about rivals, policy notes regarding FDI, FIPB approval, and communications at the level of finance secretary, minister and other officials were leaked,” said a source.Not just that, ministry officials and consultants in CBI custody have revealed that they had leaked confidential documents of many other deals before they were approved or rejected.CBI officials said the investigation was now focused on “more companies benefitting from finance and commerce and ind-ustry ministry officials”, leaking of documents of many deals and many more collaborators from the bureaucracy. Sources added that more corporate executives and ministry officials are likely to be arrested in the next few days.A senior official, describing the leak as “beyond belief”, said, “It is a clear cut case of subversion. Crucial wings of the government which were important in decision-making were be-ing compromised.”The CBI has arrested Ashok Kumar Singh, an under-secretary in the ministry of finance, and Lala Ram Sharma, a section officer in North Block, for allegedly leaking documents to private companies in return for a “high premium”. Khem Chand Gandhi, a Mumbai-based chartered accountant, and two others have also been arrested for facilitating the leak and sale of confidential documents to corporate houses.On Saturday, the CBI claimed that it was probing the role of a representative of international audit firm PricewaterhouseCoopers in the scandal.The Supreme Court had recently issued notices to the government and the income tax department on Swamy’s plea in which he sought to produce the controversial Niira Radia tapes relating to alleged irregularities in the aviation sector in the suit challenging the Jet-Etihad deal.Swamy had also demanded that the government produce before the court a government memo titled ‘Impact of Middle Eastern Carriers on Indian Airlines’ that was sent by the Prime Minister’s Office to the ministry of company affairs and its response to the note. The memo, he claimed, backed his stand that the bilateral treaty would adversely affect the Indian aviation sector.Swamy argued that the bilateral would hurt Indian airports as all operations would shift to Abu Dhabi.