CBI raids eight places

New corporate espioge case: CA and two others detained, Rs 60 lakh seized

New Delhi, March 12: The CBI on Thursday raided six offices of various ministries and private establishments in New Delhi and Mumbai in a separate case of leakage of confidential government documents and detained three people, an agency official said.

A Central Bureau of Investigation official said that they had conducted raids at six places in New Delhi and two in Mumbai in the leakage of the documents relating to foreign investments in the fince and commerce ministries.

Clarifying it was a case separate from the espioge case being probed by Delhi Police, the official said the stolen documents were being sold for consideration by certain government officials to Mumbai-based chartered accountant  Khemchandra Gandhi.

“The CA along with two other persons have been detained. The CA used to pass the stolen documents to various corporate houses. We have recovered Rs 60 lakh from the office and house of the the CA,” said the official.

Reports also said that apart from cash, the CBI has also recovered several incrimiting documents.

The probe by the CBI is separate from the investigation being carried out by the Delhi police regarding alleged sale of information by government officials in the Petroleum ministry. It has arrested 17 people in that case so far, including government employees, energy consultants and senior executives of top energy companies.

Delhi Police had, on February 20, arrested two energy consultants and five top corporate executives from leading energy firms, alleging that they used to procure documents from accused Lalta Prasad and Rakesh. Five days later, Virender Kumar, a Defence Ministry staff member, was arrested for allegedly stealing an identity card of an auditor at Indian Defence Accounts Service and providing the same to one of the accused, Lalta Prasad, in the case. Besides them, the police had arrested Rakesh Kumar, Prayas Jain, Shantanu Saikia, Ishwar Singh, Asharam and Rajkumar Chaubey, who are all in judicial custody.

In a separate FIR, the Delhi police had arrested three others — Lokesh Sharma, an employee of a Noida-based consultancy firm, Jitender gpal, PS to Joint Secretary in Forest and Environment ministry and Vipan Kumar, PA to a UPSC member. They were remanded to judicial custody till March 17. (IANS & Agencies)