India probe into theft of files widens to more oil companies
Seven people were held yesterday after five arrests on Feb. 17 when New Delhi police detected the theft of Oil Ministry papers, according to police spokesman Rajan Bhagat. Officials from Reliance Industries, Essar Group, Cairn India, Jubilant Energy and Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group Ltd. were among those detained yesterday, the police said.
Officers said they laid a trap for the men arrested Feb. 17, accusing them of faking identification cards, copying keys and disabling CCTV cameras to purloin files from the Oil Ministry. Some of that group are current or former employees at Shastri Bhawan, a cluster of buildings that houses government departments including the ministry, according to the police.
“Stolen documents were sold at various prices,” Sunil Kumar, a police investigating officer, said Friday in New Delhi.
Reliance Industries, operator of the world’s biggest oil refining complex, slumped 3.2% at the close in Mumbai on Friday, the most in the S&P BSE Sensex equity index. The company is locked in a dispute with the government over extraction levels from natural gas deposits off India’s east coast.
“We have been informed in the media that one personnel has been arrested,” Tushar Pania, a spokesman for Mumbai-based Reliance Industries, wrote in an e-mail. “We are ascertaining more details through an internal enquiry to understand the role of this personnel.”
Other Ministries
Essar spokesman Manish Kedia said the company couldn’t confirm anything for now. Cairn India spokesman Arun Arora said he needed to check on the matter. An operator who picked up a phone call to Jubilant Energy said to call back on Monday.
“We’re not aware of the circumstances in which one of our junior employees has allegedly been arrested,” said Daljeet Singh, a spokesman for Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group. “We’ll ensure full cooperation with the investigative agencies. The company adheres to the highest standards of corporate governance, and does not support any unlawful practices.”
Two energy consultants are also among those arrested, Delhi Police Commissioner B.S. Bassi said on Friday. Officers have also found files leaked from the coal and power ministries.
A car with an unauthorized sign declaring that the vehicle belonged to the government of India was seized after the Feb. 17 police operation. Officers raided a “few corporate houses,” the Times of India newspaper reported Thursday, without saying where it got the information.
Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Friday said his ministry is helping the police. India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi swept to power in May last year partly on a vow to clean up government after past scandals over the allocation of mobile phone airwaves and coal mining rights.
