Yatish Yadav By

Time, 9 O’clock in the night. Venue: Shastri Bhawan on Dr Rajendra Prasad Road in the heart of Lutyens’ Delhi, home to Union ministries and India’s powerful ministers and bureaucrats. The building houses several sensitive central ministries and departments. A white Indigo car with registration number DL 13 C 4734 screeches to a halt at Gate number 1 entrance to the building. Unaware of the watching police spotters, Lalta Prasad and Rakesh, two former employees of the Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas, rush inside with an empty bag. In the car, their accomplice and driver Raj Kumar Chaubey is at the wheel, ready to take off at a moment’s notice. Two nerve-wracking hours pass for the crack team from the Intelligence Bureau and the Crime Branch of Delhi Police, including Neeraj Kumar, Ajeet, Surender Rathee, Satbir and Vijender. At 11 pm, the two men emerge and the watchers swoop down on the suspects. They are bundled into an unmarked vehicle. Later, it was revealed that the bag carried by the suspects were filled with photocopies of classified documents, temporary I-Cards of Shastri Bhawan and the Defence Audit Department along with 11 keys of office rooms and ministry officials’ cupboards. The storm that followed indicated the Modi government’s resolve to crack down on corporate espionage, rampant during the UPA time.

Home Minister Rajnath Singh expressed the government’s resolve by saying on Saturday that theft of classified documents have been happening “for a long time” but no guilty person will be spared. “Jaldhi doodh ka doodh, paani ka paani ho jayega (everything will be clear). No guilty person would be spared and strictest punishment would be given to them,” he told reporters on the arrest of a former journalist, government clerks and corporate executives allegedly involved in stealing secret documents from the petroleum ministry—a scam which arrested journalist Shantanu Saikia alleges is worth over Rs 10,000 crore. The superspy of Modi’s team, Ajit Doval, is driving the surveillance operation on major infrastructure ministries to sensitise the officials about the classified files regarding economic reforms. Working in coordination with him is IB chief Dineshwar Sharma to expose the spy network operating in various other ministries. Cabinet Secretary Ajit Seth acts as the preventor by planning to go Kindle with cabinet notes. Delhi Police chief B S Bassi enjoys the confidence of both Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Singh, who handed over the corporate espionage case to the Delhi Police instead of CBI that was recently discredited by its former chief for allegedly hobnobbing with corporate executives.

A quarantined room in the Crime Branch Police station in Chankyapuri is flooded with sacks containing photocopies of government documents related to several ministries seized during a coordinated search operation mounted by Delhi Police following the arrests. These include highly classified correspondence between the Indian Embassy in Kuwait and Saurabh Chandra, Secretary, Ministry of Petroleum, and the CAG report on hydrocarbons. A petroleum ministry official paper noting on Panna-Mukta and Tapti joint venture was also found. Then there is a file on Ravva crude price mechanisms. A source said among the five corporate executives arrested by the police late Friday night, Subhash Chanda, a senior executive of Jubilant Energy, had earlier worked as PA to Under Secretary (Exploration) in the petroleum ministry between January 2004 and February 2008. Chanda who was posted at Shastri Bhawan was responsible for co-ordination with various oil PSUs and acted as support staff in drafting letters and PowerPoint presentation. He joined Jubilant Energy in January 2008 and his resume suggests he is “resourceful in liaising with and networking with various local authorities and Government, Regulatory & Statutory Bodies for securing necessary clearances, approvals and sanctions.”

The sustained interrogation of the two arrested petroleum ministry employees Asharam and Ishwar Singh, energy consultant and former journalist Saikia, CEO Metis Business, Prayas Jain and five corporate executives from Reliance Industries Limited, Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group (ADAG), Essar Group, Cairn India and Jubilant Energy reveals that top secret policy documents were being passed on to Indian and foreign firms for sums ranging from Rs 5 lakh to Rs 10 lakh for years, seriously compromising India’s energy sectors.

An investigator said Asha Ram, a multi-task staffer in the petroleum minister’s office and his two accused sons Lalta and Rakesh, would receive about Rs 20,000 to Rs 30,000 per photocopy for top-secret documents stolen from offices of Directors and Joint Secretaries of the ministry. Initial probe suggests that “analysis reports” prepared on the basis of secret documents were subsequently sold off to clients and firms based in the US, Dubai, France, South Korea, the UK and Spain.

HOW CORPORATE ESPIONAGE WORKS

Lower level employees are lured by energy consultants and corporate lobbyists promising reward that varies in terms of documents they supply

It is famously known as “low investment-high yielding” espionage module.

Arrested Lalta and Rakesh got nearly Rs 20,000-30,000 per set of secret oil ministry documents.

The employees are asked to photocopy any documents they could lay their hands on

The so-called energy consultants prepare reports on the basis of highly classified documents

These reports are later sold to Indian and foreign companies in lieu of huge sums—from Rs 5-10 lakh

For a corporate lobbyist, the access to government files gives an edge over the market competitor

There are instances of secret govt communication reaching corporates before it landed on PM’s table

The spybusters: the men who will cleanse the system of corporate espionage

RAJNATH SINGH

Home Minister

He has maintained that no guilty person involved in corporate espionage ring would be spared. He is keeping a close watch on the ongoing probe by Delhi Police which directly reports to Home Ministry. Under his supervision, IB has launched a massive drive to identify lobbyists and power brokers operating in the government corridors.

Ajit Doval

National Security Advisor

He had earlier warned departments to prevent leakages of confidential documents. NSA and PM had given a go-ahead to the crackdown on the espionage ring. He is driving the surveillance operation on major infrastructure ministries to sensitise the officials about the files that holds key to Modi’s economic reforms.

Dineshwar Sharma

IB DIRECTOR

He successfully supervised the operation to bust corporate espionage network. Sharma is working in close coordination with law enforcement agencies to expose the entire network still active in various other ministries.

Ajit Seth

Cabinet Secretary

To check the leak of top-secret Cabinet papers, he had decided not to circulate sensitive documents to ministers in advance. He had put in place a mechanism to circulate the papers just hours before the meeting to prevent the leakages. Seth now plans to do away with hard copies of cabinet notes by handing over a tablet to each Union minister containing soft copies before the meeting.

Rajinder Khanna, R&AW Chief

Months before the crackdown, Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan in November last year had requested R&AW to probe into an alleged ‘link’ between the lawyers for Reliance Industries Limited and the umpire in the arbitration tribunal that’s adjudicating since 2011 in a legal tussle over costs related to Panna, Mukta and Tapti (PMT) oil and gas fields. A document related to same oil and gas field has been recovered by the police.

Bassi

Delhi Police Commissioner

Both PM and Home Minister handed over the case to Delhi Police instead of CBI that was recently discredited by its former chief for allegedly hobnobbing with Corporate executives. Bassi and his Crime Branch team have arrested 12 people so far and likely to nab other players operating in various infrastructure ministries.

Excerpts from the first information report

Following documents were recovered from Lalta Prasad: Photocopy of papers of Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell —Monthly Gas Report/Dec 2014 dated 16/02/2015 signed by Aitrayee Das.

Recovered photocopy of documents titled “Brief on further opportunities in Sri Lanka” dated 04/02/2015.

Photocopies of documents with heading ETS Number 24269, scroll no. 61 to 71.

Photocopies of document classified as Secret -0-32011/4/2013 ONGC, Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas.

Photocopy of document ‘Exploration Division, Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas’. The front page signed by N K Srivastava, Dy Secy, along with a background note.

Photocopy of documents with the heading “Main file is under Submission” with serial number 2-8 signed by various officers and one DO letter of Nripendra Misra, Principal Secretary to Prime Minister

From Lalta Prasad, one temporary pass of Ministry of Home Affairs, for Shastri Bhawan in his name with designation as DEO having serial number 0007687 issued on 13/10/2014 and valid up to 12/12/2014 was recovered.

Another temporary pass in the name of Lalta Prasad having serial number 0007821 issued on 17/12/2014 and valid up to 10/04/2015 was recovered.

One I-card of Audit Department, Defence Services, in the name of Lalta Prasad, Designation: Lekha Paraiksha Adhikari (Audit Officer), having serial number 186, issued on 30/04/2014 and valid up to March 2019 was recovered.

From Rakesh, photocopy of presentation to Secretary, Ministry of Petroleum, with heading ‘ONGC Videsh Limited: International Petroleum Company of India’ dated 16/02/2015 was recovered.

Photocopy of document: Detailed note on issues in different countries in oil and gas sector was recovered.

Photocopy of documents— ‘Secret No.19025/10/2015 ONGC V, ETS: 23492, Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas was recovered.

The Story So Far