Corporate espionage case: CBI raids various ministries, arrests Mumbai-based CA, two govt officials
New Delhi: The CBI on Thursday carried out searches at various ministries in the national capital in the corporate espionage case.
The raids were conducted in six places in Delhi and two in Mumbai today to investigate the alleged sale of information by government officials.
The CBI also arrested a Mumbai-based chartered accountant and two government officials tonight for allegedly selling confidential documents related to foreign investment policy to corporate groups after it carried out searches in offices of Finance and Commerce ministries here and in Mumbai.
CBI’s action came after registering a case of criminal conspiracy, theft under IPC and misuse of official position under the provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act against Chartered Accountant Khemchand Gandhi, Under Secretary in Department of Disinvestment and Grievances Ashok Kumar Singh and Section Officer in the Department of Economic Affairs Lala Ram Sharma.
After detailed interrogation, the trio were taken into custody late night.
Major coordinated search operation was carried out at several offices of Finance Ministry and Commerce Ministry, residences of Singh, Sharma and Gandhi.
The sources said a trove of confidential documents and Rs 60 lakh cash was allegedly recovered from the residence of Gandhi besides large number of electronic documents have been found on the laptop, tablets and hard disks recovered from the residence of officials and CA, as per PTI.
It is alleged that the government servants were selling documents related to Foreign Investment Policies, which were being floated in the ministries, to Gandhi who in turn passed them on to big corporates for a price.
The sources said the racket was allegedly active for last two years and might have sold and influenced the policy of government regarding foreign investments in India.
“The Under Secretaries and Section Officers of ministries are custodian of policy documents and also the first movers of policy proposals. We suspect that they might be influencing the policies in favour of corporates. But that is a matter of probe,” a senior CBI official alleged.
The sources said agency was tracking the officials and the chartered accountant for quite some time and today intercepted a courier in Mumbai in which an entire confidential file was recovered. The courier was allegedly sent by Ashok Kumar Singh to Gandhi, the sources said.
They said by getting to know that a particular foreign investment policy was being floated in the Government gave the beneficiary corporate groups a time window to prepare themselves for the policy when it finally gets enforced.
Read full article: Zee News
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