CBI summons RIL officer, arrests clerk
CBI said govt documents were allegedly sold by Singh and Sharma to Gandhi, who passed them on to corporate houses.
CBI said govt documents were allegedly sold by Singh and Sharma to Gandhi, who passed them on to corporate houses.
The CBI, which is probing leaks and sale of confidential government documents from the Ministries of Finance and Commerce and Industry to corporate houses, said on Monday that it has summoned a senior officer of Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) to probe his links to a Mumbai-based Chartered Accountant arrested earlier.
The CBI on Monday also arrested Daljit Singh, an upper divisional clerk in the department of industrial policy and promotion, in connection with leaks of documents from the Commerce and Industry Ministry. Singh is the sixth person to be arrested by the agency in the case.
“The CBI is probing the roles of many companies in getting inputs, and in this regard we have also summoned a senior officer of Reliance Industries Limited based in Mumbai to New Delhi for his links with Khemchand Gandhi. Whether Reliance is a beneficiary or not is a matter of investigation,” said a spokesperson from the agency.
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When contacted, an RIL spokesperson said: “No RIL staff has received such a summon. Your information has no basis”.
The CBI had on March 12 arrested Mumbai-based CA-cum-consultant Khemchand Gandhi, Ashok Kumar Singh, an under secretary in the department of disinvestment and Lalaram Sharma, a section officer in the department of economic affairs. CBI said government documents were allegedly sold by Singh and Sharma to Gandhi, who passed them on to corporate houses.
“Daljit Singh, who was a named accused in the FIR filed in the case, has been arrested today. He was involved in colluding with Gandhi, Singh and Sharma in leaks and sale of confidential government documents,” said a CBI officer.
On March 13, the CBI arrested Ram Niwas, an assistant in the Foreign Investment Promotion Board section of the Finance Ministry for allegedly leaking documents. Also nabbed was Paresh Chamanlal Budhadev, a partner in Mumbai-based law firm Chitale and Associates. Budhadev was allegedly trying to destroy documents, but some of them were recovered, said the CBI.
The agency on Friday searched Mumbai offices of Chitale and Associates and chartered accountant Mitesh J Majithia. Copies of government files and notings pertaining to foreign investment were allegedly recovered.
“Another partner in Chitale and Associates, Rajendra Chitale, has also been summoned to Delhi,” the CBI spokesperson said Monday.
According to CBI sources, around a dozen corporate houses are under the scanner. These alleged beneficiaries received the advantage of being privy to information on government policies before their competitors, allowing them more time to prepare for new policies or decisions.
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