A source privy to the investigation said that the accused have confessed to have stolen maps of both the ongoing and upcoming oil refinery projects from the petroleum ministry. This helped the corporate pre-empt government action.
The Delhi Police on Tuesday morning arrested one more person in the case — this time the accused happens to be a contractual employee with the defence ministry identified as Virender Singh (31). He had provided the forged ID card to the main accused Lalta Prasad (arrested on Day 1 of the probe).
So far, 13 people have been arrested in this regard. The police have, however, said that no sensitive documents were found leaked or stolen from the defence ministry. Virender only provided blank official letterheads to Prasad that were used to prepare the forged letters.
“The letter showed a signed contract with the Dharam Singh Travel Agency by the office of the director general of Audit Defence Services,” said Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime Branch) Ravindra Yadav.
Explaining the module followed by the accused, BS Bassi, Delhi Police Commissioner said: “The accused used to target the offices of the concerned officials and then lure the clerical staff to follow that particular official to access every available document. Once the clerical staff managed access to the documents, they used to select the required documents from the bunch. Subsequently, they used to pay the clerical staff.”
He further added that so far, no role of senior officials associated with any of the ministries has popped up. “Rather, they (senior officials) were the ones on target,” he said. He added said that investigators have come across “leakage and theft of documents from petroleum, power and coal ministries and not from any other department.”
The Delhi Police on Tuesday morning arrested one more person in the case — this time the accused happens to be a contractual employee with the defence ministry identified as Virender Singh (31). He had provided the forged ID card to the main accused Lalta Prasad (arrested on Day 1 of the probe).
So far, 13 people have been arrested in this regard. The police have, however, said that no sensitive documents were found leaked or stolen from the defence ministry. Virender only provided blank official letterheads to Prasad that were used to prepare the forged letters.
“The letter showed a signed contract with the Dharam Singh Travel Agency by the office of the director general of Audit Defence Services,” said Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime Branch) Ravindra Yadav.
Explaining the module followed by the accused, BS Bassi, Delhi Police Commissioner said: “The accused used to target the offices of the concerned officials and then lure the clerical staff to follow that particular official to access every available document. Once the clerical staff managed access to the documents, they used to select the required documents from the bunch. Subsequently, they used to pay the clerical staff.”
He further added that so far, no role of senior officials associated with any of the ministries has popped up. “Rather, they (senior officials) were the ones on target,” he said. He added said that investigators have come across “leakage and theft of documents from petroleum, power and coal ministries and not from any other department.”