Corporate espionage: Police yet to grill top executives

Even after four days since the sensational corporate espionage racket came to light, the police are yet to question any top level executive of any big energy giant named in the case. On the other hand, swine flu is also creating hurdle in the probe as RIL’s Raghu Raman couldn’t appear before the cops as he is recovering from the deadly H1N1. While another executive went abroad on an official trip before he was approached, sources said.

“We will soon be sending notices to the seniors of all five arrested officials. We want them to join the probe,” a senior police official said.

The police source added that it is yet to be examined how the concerned documents, recovered so far after conducting a series of raids, could impact national security and, on Sunday, a separate team of experts was assigned the task of analysing those documents. At the same time, questioning of the five mid-level executives, former journalist Santanu Saikia, energy consultant Prayas Jain and two multi-tasking staff in the ministry, who were sent to the police custody, continued throughout the day.

Meanwhile, accused Lalta Prasad and Rakesh Kumar, who are in the police custody, were again taken to Shastri Bhawan on Sunday afternoon to decode the entire modus-operandi of the module. Police has also questioned three key-makers who might have helped in making duplicate keys of office rooms.

Raman was summoned for questioning at the Crime Branch unit in New Delhi’s Chanakyapuri, but Raman couldn’t appear before the cops as he was recovering from swine flu. The matter was communicated to the police after a wait that lasted for a couple of hours, said a police source. The source further said, the police had tried to approach another top executive too. But by the time the executive was contacted, he had already left for an indefinite trip abroad. A senior official also informed that a separate team will be formed to focus probe on the Oil ministry and unearth a larger nexus that is suspectedly involved in corporate espionage services. This team is set to begin its operation from Monday, starting with the questioning of some senior officials, up to the bureaucrat level. 

The police also launched a manhunt to nab two absconding persons identified as Veer Singh, a peon in the ministry, and Lokesh, an alleged middlemen in the buying and selling of crucial data. Lokesh is also reportedly a part of separate modules that carry out similar operations in the Coal Ministry and Department of Telecommunication, however these reports are yet to be verified, the senior official added.