New Delhi: Five people were arrested by the Delhi Police Crime branch today on charges of trying to get documents on policy matters of different ministries. Two government employees are among the five people arrested for allegedly leaking documents from the petroleum ministry to private firms, officials said.
The accused were all trying to leak out confidential papers related to policy matters of the Petroleum ministry to business houses to alter the government's decision making policies. Names of big companies have also emerged. Crime Branch suspects that some senior officers might also be associated with the crime.
Asharam and Ishwar are lower division clerks and the other co-accused are Laltan Prasad, Rakesh Kumar and Rajkumar Chaubey. Asharam and Ishwar are accused of copying confidential documents on ministry policies and passing them on to other three men, who then allegedly passed on the papers to private consultancy firms.
Meanwhile Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan has said strong action would be taken against the two employees. "They will be severely dealt with. Police is probing the case. We will take strong action against the guilty. Government will come down hard on them," he said.
On being asked whether any corporate lobbyist could be involved, the Petroleum Minister said it was up to the police to investigate.
Delhi police have also detained a journalist who is being interrogated for some classified documents found in his possession.
The story is yet developing.
