Doval raised an alarm over the frequent reporting of classified matters in the media. A TV channel’s report saying the Prime Minister was shown images of INS Arihant, a nuclear submarine, at a DRDO function proved to be the last straw, said sources. He then asked RAW to initiate action, TOI was told.
The NSA is learnt to have written to the cabinet secretary, Ajit Kumar Seth, sometime in mid-October, saying such reports based on classified information undermined national security and were an offence under the Official Secrets Act. Doval also pointed out that most leaks came from government offices and there was a need to follow official protocol related to classified information.
Seth then took up the matter with the ministers. The probe led to the petroleum ministry where Asharam, a peon with access to petroleum minister Dharmendra Pradhan office, turned out to be one of the key men in the racket.
READ ALSO: How it unfolded, what was leaked
Ministries and other government departments were alerted and asked to beef up their security. Once the probe began, dozens of phones were officially intercepted, after clearance from the home ministry. The investigators now have about a hundred hours of recordings to back their case.
Sources said on several occasions during the past four months fake papers were made to look like important ones to fool people under suspicion and even mock conversations were carried out to ensnare suspects. When such papers were leaked, the agencies could narrow down their probe.
Finally, armed with concrete leads and evidence, the agencies briefed ministers and bureaucrats. The NSA was informed about the breakthrough and the PM given the news. Decks were then cleared for Delhi Police commissioner B S Bassi to be brought into the picture in the second week of February. The initial choice was CBI but a top home ministry official had the last word and Bassi was asked to launch the crackdown.
The commissioner discussed the issue with two special commissioners and assigned the probe to the crime branch. The agencies also handed over crucial evidence, including call detail analysis, photographs, phone numbers and addresses of the suspects to the police. The crime branch then moved in and picked up the accused
NEW DELHI: In a sensational twist to the corporate espionage case in which sensitive petroleum ministry documents were being leaked, the crime branch on Friday evening arrested senior executives of India’s top private energy companies – Reliance Industries, Essar, Cairns India, ADAG Reliance and Jubilant Energy. Here are ten developments in the case so far.
1. The total number of arrests in the case has gone up to 12.
2. The cops are also looking for another petroleum ministry employee, Lokesh, who is currently absconding.
3. The probe has also revealed that coal and power ministry papers were being similarly leaked
4. The arrested petroleum ministry staffers also confessed that they tried to access the defence ministry but failed because the “modules” of that office were different and difficult to crack.
5. Police have denied reports appearing on TV channels that the petroleum ministry had been bugged.
6. TOI has accessed the FIR registered in case which give details of the papers recovered from the accused and reveals that even the input material on national gas grid for the FM’s forthcoming Budget speech had been leaked out.
8. Four accused in the corporate espionage case – former multi-tasking staffers at Shastri Bhawan, brothers Lalta Prasad, Rakesh Kumar, energy consultant Prayas Jain and former newspaper reporter Santanu Saikia – were on Friday remanded to police custody till February 23 by a trial court after police said the accused had to be interrogated on various aspects of the case.
The other three accused, Ishwar Singh, Asharam and Rajkumar Chaubey, were sent to two weeks of judicial custody after police said they were not required for custodial interrogation.
9. Cops tapped senior executives’ phones
The ongoing probe into leaked government documents is likely to lead to the arrest of more senior executives of top energy companies.
Investigative agencies have in their possession more than 100 hours of recorded phone conversations of five people connected with the racket, including two executives of a top energy company. These tapes indict a number of senior corporate executives, police said.
While one of two energy company officials whose phones were tapped has reportedly gone missing. The other has told cops that he has swine flu and would join investigations later.
These conversations were tapped by agencies in December and January in which the exchange of papers and the considerations involved are mentioned. The cops have also got to know around 12 bank accounts in which money was being transferred by the information seekers.
10. Govt says it is committed to transparency
The Centre on Friday said the action is aimed at inspiring “confidence in the minds of people that any wrongdoing shall not go unnoticed or unpunished”.
Speaking to the media on the issue, commerce minister Nirmala Sitharaman said: “I think the government has taken a firm decision to act on this. The minister himself has said that firm action will be taken and that is the right take. It is definitely not in the interest of the country. The investigation will tell us whether it is an inherited issue. I am happy to say that this is something which has been very closely adhered to. We are on the side of keeping processes transparent and not on the side which will lead to corrupt practices.”
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UK-based billionaire Sanjay Hinduja tied the knot with Anu Mahtani this week in Udaipur, and the wedding was an Indian fairytale.
Think three days (starting February 10) spent in a palace, celebrating with Bollywood stars and watching performances by international celebrities like Jennifer Lopez and ex-Pussycat Doll Nicole Scherzinger, who flew down specially for the event. Doesn’t get much bigger than that.
The guest list was hefty, with stars like Preity Zinta, Shilpa Shetty, Raveena Tandon, Sophie Choudry and Dino Morea joined by designer Manish Malhotra (who dressed the bride). Other stars attending also joined Lopez and Scherzinger in the performances: Arjun Kapoor, Ranveer Singh, and Shibani Dandekar. Sohail and Seema Khan also attended, along with Maheep and Sanjay Kapoor.
Some of the best Instagram posts you’ll find under the newlyweds’ many hashtags – #SanjayAnuWedding, #SanjayHinduja and #SanjayAnu – include a video of Jennifer Lopez killing the stage in a black leotard…
Islamabad: Pakistan on Saturday said all outstanding issues with India will be discussed during Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar’s upcoming visit to Islamabad.
Foreign Office spokeswoman Tasnim Aslam said so far dates for the visit of the Indian foreign secretary had not been finalised.
Pakistan is committed to having a meaningful dialogue with India and had never backtracked, she said at a news briefing.
She also criticised India over the ‘boat’ controversy saying Pakistan had already stated that its boats were not involved in the incident.
Aslam said that contradictory statements issued by top Indian officials prove “the boat issue was a drama that has now been exposed”.
She also said that India had not shared any reports about the 2007 Samjhauta Express bombing that killed 68 people, mostly Pakistanis, adding that the Indian government should share complete details of the investigation with Pakistan.
PTI
Mumbai: Congress leader Sanjay Nirupam Friday demanded that Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis should intervene to ensure that MERC rejects the proposal of Reliance Energy to hike the electricity rates for Mumbai suburban consumers.
Talking to reporters here, Nirupam, former MP from Mumbai North parliamentary constituency, said Fadnavis should also probe the nexus between the power supply company and MERC.
“The government led by my party’s Chief Minister did not do anything in this regard. My agitation against the unjust power tariff levy of Reliance Energy went in vain as no action was taken,” he said recalling his hunger strike against the high electricity rates for low-end users.
Nirupam said people of Mumbai had voted for BJP in large numbers and hence Fadnavis should take steps to ensure that they are not burdened with unnecessary power tariff hike.
“As per the proposal, there will be 16 per cent hike for 0-300 units consumption while 45 per cent hike for high-end users. Fadnavis should see to it that the hike for poor consumers is not allowed while some adjustments can be made for high-end users,” Nirupam said.
“The government should represent the case of common man of Mumbai with the MERC,” he said.
Nirupam said the nexus of MERC officials and the company should also be probed.
“I will resume my agitation again if the demand is not met,” he said.
The proposed hike will adversely impact lives of lakhs of consumers who are already burdened with high cost of most essentials, he said.
“I am particularly concerned about the low end users who are not in a position to pay increased electricity tariff. Several analysts have also opined that the hike is unjustified,” he said.
PTI
Mumbai: With swine flu taking alarming proportions, Mumbai Mayor Snehal Ambekar on Thursday called it a “heart disease” and made a bizarre suggestion that the municipal authority will plant trees to check the disease.
“Swine flu is a heart disease… Hence, BMC will plant trees, develop gardens and parks to check swine flu,” Ambekar told reporters after garlanding the statue of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj here today, on the occasion of his birth anniversary.
Swine flu, caused by an infection of H1N1 virus, has claimed over 650 lives across the country and affected over 10,000 people. In Maharashtra, 83 disease-related deaths have been reported so far.
PTI
New Delhi: After a week in office, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Friday said his government was going to cut power tariff and launch a free water scheme “very soon” in line with election promises made by Aam Aadmi Party.
Kejriwal said his government has already finalised a “blue-print” on issues relating to power and water which were focus areas for AAP during the election campaign while it will take at least a year to make Delhi a “wi-fi city”.
“Our team has rolled out a blue-print for electricity and water. I hope to give the good news to you all very soon to reduce the rates of power and water. We are working on the lines of our governance model that we followed during our 49- day stint,” Kejriwal said.
The Chief Minister said his government was also working on implementing the poll promise of free wi-fi and added that it will take at least one year.
“A few days back, you all voted for us giving a heavy majority. Congratulations to you all. It’s a big burden. It’s a big responsibility. You all have very high hope. We are working round-the-clock. We are focusing on work and talking less,” Kejriwal said.
He was speaking after inaugurating the annual Garden Tourism Festival at Saket in South Delhi.
In its manifesto, AAP had promised to cut power tariff by 50 per cent immediately after coming to power and said the rates will be revised based on the findings of an CAG audit which the Kejriwal government had announced during its first stint.
He said people of the city have lot of expectations from his government on the electricity and water issues and it was going to fulfil them.
The AAP in its manifesto had also promised 20 kilolitres (20,000 litres) of free water to every household per month. The previous AAP government had introduced the free water scheme but it was discontinued after it quit.
PTI
Washington: Britain’s electronic spying agency, working with the US National Security Agency, hacked into the networks of a Dutch company to steal codes that allow both governments to seamlessly eavesdrop on mobile phones worldwide, according to the documents given to journalists by Edward z.
A story about the documents posted yesterday on the website The Intercept offered no details on how the intelligence agencies employed the eavesdropping capability, providing no evidence, for example, that they misused it to spy on people who weren’t valid intelligence targets.
But the surreptitious operation against the world’s largest manufacturer of mobile phone data chips is bound to stoke anger around the world.
It fuels an impression that the NSA and its British counterpart will do whatever they deem necessary to further their surveillance prowess, even if it means stealing information from law-abiding Western companies.
The targeted company, Netherlands-based Gemalto, makes “subscriber identity modules,” or SIM cards, used in mobile phones and credit cards. One of the company’s three global headquarters is in Austin, Texas.
Its clients include AT&T, T-Mobile, Verizon and Sprint, The Intercept reported.
The Intercept offered no evidence of any eavesdropping against American customers of those providers, and company officials told the website they had no idea their networks had been penetrated. Experts called it a major compromise of mobile phone security.
The NSA did not immediately respond to a request for comment. In the past, former agency officials have defended using extra-legal techniques to further surveillance capabilities, saying the US needs to be able to eavesdrop on terrorists and US adversaries who communicate on the same networks as everyone else.
The NSA, like the CIA, breaks the espionage and hacking laws of other countries to get information that helps American interests.
Still, the methods in this case may prove controversial, as did earlier Snowden revelations that the NSA was hacking transmissions among Google’s data centers.
The Intercept reported that British government hackers targeted Gemalto engineers around the world much as the US often accuses Chinese government hackers of targeting Western companies, stealing credentials that got the hackers into the company’s networks.
Once inside, the British spies stole encryption keys that allow them to decode the data that passes between mobile phones and cell towers.
AP
- The accused used to supply these sensitive documents to certain corporate houses: Police tell court
- Delhi Police tells court that various incriminating documents of ministries of Defence, and Coal and Power were recovered from the accused.
- A Delhi court remands four accused arrested in connection with alleged leakage of classified documents in police custody till February 23. Three other accused in the case remanded in two weeks judicial custody by the court.
- The Delhi Police is taking accused from Crime Branch office to court.
- Sources say the accused allegedly used fake ID cards to gain access to Shastri Bhawan in the middle of the night. They would use the duplicate keys to open rooms of senior officials and photocopy secret official documents for sale to corporates and consultancy firms.
- Sources say locks of all the rooms are being changed, and security and vigilance enhanced.
- The door of Director Prashant S Lokhande was found compromised about two months back following which the ministry ordered a through investigation and CCTV cameras were installed.
- Sources say the Petroleum Ministry was first alerted of the theft of official documents some months back when some critical documents with the then Joint Secretary (Exploration) Giridhar Armane were found in a photocopier machine when rooms were opened in the morning. The ministry internally probed the issue.
- The bunch of keys found in the possession of the five arrested persons were used to open the rooms of top ministry officials they had allegedly accessed, say police sources.
- Bassi refuses to reveal the names of the organisations who benefitted from leaking of documents. He said: “It will not be good to reveal the names of these organisations as the investigation is still on.”
- The arrested people (Lalta Prasad and Rakesh Kumar) did not steal particular documents, they instead used to lift any document lying on the table, says Bassi.
- The police chief says the initial investigation revealed that some individuals, who were provided these documents, also worked with some corporate companies.
- News agency, ANI, quotes Asharam, accused in the case, as saying that he has not done anything wrong and he is being framed. My sons are to be blamed for the incident, he adds. As crime branch officials whisked him away, he says, “I came to know of this on February 17. I have not done anything. Mera beta zimvewar hai (my son is responsible).”
- Three accused, who were earlier in the day taken to the Petroleum Ministry, are now being taken back to Crime Branch office.
- Delhi Police chief BS Bassi adds the documents have to be examined in consultation with concerned officers.
- Delhi Police Commissioner BS Bassi says probe into the matter is on. Vowing to share more information once he possesses it, Bassi says in total five people have been arrested in connection with the case.
- Refraining from spilling the beans, Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan says the investigating agency is doing its job and an independent inquiry is going on in the matter.
- The rooms that they had alleged accessed to steal official documents included rooms of Special Secretary Rajive Kumar, Joint Secretary (Refineries) Sandeep Poundrik, Joint Secretary (Exploration) UP Singh and Director (Exploration-1) Nalin Kumar Srivastava among others.
- The five persons, including two junior employees of the Oil Ministry, are being taken to the rooms of senior officials which they had allegedly accessed using duplicate keys.
- The Delhi Police takes five persons, who they have arrested for allegedly stealing official documents from the Petroleum Ministry, to the site of the crime to check the access they had to the building.
Earlier development:
In a development that caused reverberations in political as well as corporate circles, the Delhi Police on Friday arrested two energy consultants in connection with leaking of classified documents from the Petroleum Ministry.
“We have arrested Prayas Jain and Santanu Saikia in this connection. Both of them are energy consultants who received stolen documents,” said a senior police official.
While Saikia is a former journalist who runs a web portal on petroleum issues and has his office in Defence Colony, Jain runs his consultancy firm in Patel Nagar.
Delhi Police chief BS Bassi said that both Saikia and Jain ran some sort of an independent website where they uploaded the analysis of the stolen documents.
“…And this information was further used by corporate houses. They also shared this information with some individuals in return of money,” Bassi told reporters.
Both of them will be produced in court around noon.
The police had on Thursday arrested two Petroleum Ministry officials, a Reliance Industries (RIL) staffer and two other middlemen in the suspected case of corporate espionage.
In a case reminiscent of the spy scandal in mid 80s, more people are likely to be arrested today.
Raids were yesterday conducted at several establishments including a prominent building in Connaught Place which houses offices of a leading private petroleum firm, believed to be RIL.
Petroleum Minister Dharamendra Pradhan said that strict action will be taken against those involved in the case and they will be “severely dealt with”.
Delhi Police Commissioner BS Bassi had yesterday said that action was taken on a tip off that two persons along with their associates were involved in “procuring, obtaining and stealing the official documents by trespassing into the offices of Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas at Shastri Bhawan on February 17”. Notably, Shastri Bhawan is located a stone’s throw from the Parliament house and houses offices of several ministers.
“A trap was laid and three persons came in an Indigo car near Shastri Bhawan. Two persons alighted and went inside while the third remained sitting in the car. After around two hours, when the two persons entered the car, all three persons were apprehended,” he said.
“The car they were travelling in had an unauthorised sticker of the government of India,” he said.
Bassi said the “secret papers” were photocopied after office hours by the arrested who used duplicate keys to open the offices after entering Shastri Bhawan on forged identity cards and temporary passes obtained fraudulently. The stolen documents were “sold” to an individual of private energy consultancy company and to those in the petrochemical and energy industries in return for rewards, he said.
“All those who are recipients of stolen documents will be questioned and action taken. If the documents fall under the purview of the Official Secrets Act, then the relevant sections will also be imposed,” he told reporters.
“They had been involved in the act for a long time,” he said, adding a case has been registered against the five for stealing, forgery, trespass and criminal conspiracy.
They were identified as Lalta Prasad (36), Rakesh Kumar (30), both brothers and resident of Delhi, and Raj Kumar Chaubey (39), a resident of Ghaziabad in Uttar Pradesh. Official documents were recovered from them. On information provided by them, Asharam, 58, and Ishwar Singh, 56, who were employed as multi tasking staff in the ministry, were arrested. Notably, Prasad and Kumar are sons of Asharam.
Reliance Industries said it has been brought to the company’s notice that one personnel has been detained by law-enforcement authorities. Launching a “robust internal probe” into the detention of its employee, the RIL said no information of commercial consequence to it resides in the ministry with which it is in arbitration in several cases.
Pradhan, who talked to various news channels, said that the surveillance at the ministry had been tightened by the National Democratic Alliance government and indicated such thefts had been taking place during the previous UPA government’s tenure.
Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala asked if the government will review decisions that had benefited the corporate houses due to the leaked documents.
He also sought to know how long this was going on and how many documents were leaked, while demanding that the corporate houses who allegedly benefited from the leaked documents should be named.
Bharatiya Janata Party spokesperson Sambit Patra said the government will get to the bottom of the matter.
New Delhi: A 29-year-old woman researcher has accused Rajendra Kumar Pachauri, the director-general of The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI), of sexually harassing her.
As per the first information report (FIR) registered at the Lodhi Colony Police Station on Wednesday night, Pachauri committed offences under Sections 354, 354A, 354D, 506 of IPC, which deal with outraging the modesty of a woman, sexual harassment, stalking, and criminal intimidation, respectively, a daily said on Thursday.
The Delhi High Court had yesterday directed the 75-year-old scientist to join the probe into charges of alleged sexual harassment “as and when required”. The court also lifted its order restraining publication of reports on the alleged harassment complaint by the woman research analyst to Delhi Police.
The court posted the matter for April 8 for further order.
Pachauri had moved the High Court seeking a restraining order on publication of reports relating to the alleged complaint. On February 17, the court restrained publication of news on the issue, but the next day (February 18), modified the order and lifted the ban.
Meanwhile, Pachauri, whose Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has shared the Nobel Peace Prize, moved anticipatory bail plea before the High Court. Justice SP Garg, however asked him to move the proper forum – the sessions court.
As per news reports, the complaint against Pachauri states that the woman researcher joined TERI in late 2013. The scientist started misbehaving with the woman researcher shortly afterwards.
“These include unwanted physical advances as well as e-mails, text and WhatsApp messages, as per the complaint. The complaint alleges that Pachauri persisted in his conduct, even after the complainant asked for a halt to the alleged messages. The research analyst had also moved TERI over the issue on February 9,” the daily added.
Denying the allegations, Pachauri has claimed that his e-mail IDs, mobile phone and WhatsApp messages have been hacked.
Meanwhile, a spokesperson for Pachauri said it will “not be prudent or appropriate to comment anything on the matter pending adjudication before the Hon’ble Delhi High Court”.
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