On Saturday morning, the Delhi Police carried out raids in the Capital and Noida On Saturday morning, the Delhi Police carried out raids in the Capital and Noida

The Delhi Police is set to question senior bureaucrats and top executives of private companies whose employees were arrested after the corporate espionage syndicate was busted with the arrest of 12 people.

The Crime Branch sleuths, after the initial interrogation of the employees of the private companies, are now zeroing in on the real beneficiaries of the leaked documents. Sources said it's the top honchos who were interested in these secret documents. "We will question the senior executives soon to unravel the entire network," said a police officer. Four bureaucrats of the petroleum ministry are also in the crosshairs of the crime branch.

The mindboggling rates at which the documents were being sold is also the focus of the probe. Sources say a lot of money has been pumped in since the past several years. Initial investigation reveals that that documents had been sold between Rs 5-10 lakh and up to Rs 2 crore depending on the importance of the files. Budget notes and pricing-related documents fetched the most. However, during the investigation it was found that most of the documents went out of the petroleum ministry. Documents on government strategy in the court cases, policy formulation, crude oil purchase details and payment of fuel subsidy files were the also sought-after.

Higher-ups involved

Sources said during investigation, officials of five companies told the police that their seniors used to request them to get documents related to developments of the petroleum ministry. Senior officials of the ministry were also in direct touch with higher-ups in energy companies.

Police have started analysing call details of these accused. "Our main job is to narrow down beneficiaries and senior management of these firms and a few bureaucrats are also under scanner. Initial investigation has revealed that five executives representing different companies were close friends and shared details coming out from the ministry regularly, a source said.

On Saturday morning, the Delhi Police carried out raids in the Capital and Noida. A crime branch team carried out searches at Prayas Jain's Patel Nagar officer. Jain is one of the consultants arrested. Later in the afternoon, police went to Jubilant Energy's office situated in Noida. One of the employees of the company has been arrested by the Delhi Police.

Reacting on the development in the case of corporate espionage, Delhi Police Commissioner B.S. Bassi said, "We have searched places which were necessary for the course of investigation. We may further raid places as our aim is to reach the bottom of the whole thing. Investigation is on in the case and it will end only when a chargesheet is filed."

The Delhi Police has also prepared a list of 55 persons who were constantly in touch with Santanu Saikia and Prayas Jain. "We have prepared a list of persons on the basis of details given by Santanu and Prayas. We will also analyse their call, message details to get further leads," said a police officer.

Sources said the five executives arrested on Friday were just courier guys who used to take information from documents from various sources.

Essar reacts

"We have noted with concern that one of our employees has been arrested by the authorities. Essar is a law-abiding corporate following a zero tolerance policy towards acts which are against the law of the land. The company reiterates that neither it has directly, nor has it authorised anybody to conduct any acts not in compliance with the law.

We will also launch an internal probe to investigate the matter and in the meanwhile, are extending full cooperation to the authorities."

