Delhi Police on Monday told a court here that offence committed in the Petroleum Ministry documents leak case was covered under the Official Secrets Act (OSA) and inquiry on this aspect was underway.
Opposing the bail plea of Jubilant Energy's official Subhash Chandra, who along with 12 others, has been chargesheeted in the case, police said that he was in unauthorised possession of six sets of documents recovered from him.
"He (Chandra) was not authorised to possess any of these documents. He should not be having possession of any of these documents. These documents were not in public domain," the prosecutor said. He said, "it is an offence under the OSA but it has not yet been slapped. The inquiry is going on".
During arguments, the counsel appearing for Chandra said the charge sheet says that no secret documents have been recovered from the possession of his client, who has been in custody for over two months.
The defence counsel also said that charge sheet has already been filed and no mobile phone or laptop of his client was seized by the police during investigation.
The prosecutor countered his submissions saying there were around 50 telephone calls between Chandra and co-accused Lalta Prasad during March 1, 2014 to February 17, 2015.
He said that investigation is going on as to how these documents were used by Chandra and his firm and mobiles and laptops of senior officials of Jubilant Energy have been seized and have been sent for forensic examination.
Additional Sessions Judge Raj Kapoor has reserved the order on Chandra's bail plea for April 30.
The court, which was scheduled to hear the arguments on the bail pleas of four other corporate executives and another co-accused in the case, adjourned hearing on their pleas to April 29 after their counsel sought adjournment on the ground that lawyers' body are observing strike.
Court dismisses journalist Shantanu Saikia’s bail plea
A Delhi court on Monday dismissed the bail plea of a senior journalist who was arrested along with 12 others for their alleged roles in the Petroleum Ministry documents leak case. Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Sanjay Khanagwal rejected accused Shantanu Saikia's bail application which was opposed by the Crime Branch of Delhi Police, saying that incriminating documents have been recovered from him. During the arguments, the investigating officer (IO) said that Saikia is running a webportal Indian Petro Group and he used to analyse these documents and sell it to his clients at a higher rate. "80 sets of documents have been recovered from his house and office. These documents were not in public domain and 23 sets of these documents were secret/confidential in nature," the IO said adding that bail pleas of some of the co-accused have already been dismissed by the court.