Corporate espionage: Officials of RIL, ADAG, Essar, Cairns and others arrested

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NEW DELHI: Delhi Police on Friday said they have arrested officials of Reliance Industries Limited RIL), Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group (ADAG), Essar, Cairns and others in the corporate-espionage case that has rocked the capital. 

The arrested people are Shailesh Saxena of RIL, Vinay Kumar of Essar, KK Naik of Cairns, Subhash Chandra of Jubilant Energy, Rishi Anand of Reliance ADAG. 

The scandal got murkier on Friday as confidential documents including an input for the upcoming finance minister's Budget speech were allegedly leaked in the whole operation. 

Oil minister Dharmendra Pradhan said he wants the guilty to be brought to book and would comment only after the investigation is complete. "Let the investigation be over. No one will be spared," he said.

Three diaries recovered from the accused, who have been arrested, have led to the revelation. According to sources, there could be many important names and numbers in these diaries. 

The crime branch probe has indicated that the accused were in possession of papers from other ministries as well. 

They will be interrogated to ascertain the identity of other people involved. 

READ ALSO: Cops arrest former journalist Santanu Saikia, energy consultant Prayas Jain 

A Delhi court, meanwhile, sent four of the seven accused to police custody till February 23. Former journalist Santanu Saikia, energy consultant Prayas Jain along with Rakesh Kumar and Lalta Prasad have been sent to police custody. 

The remaining three, Asharam, Ishwar Singh and Raj Kumar Chaubey, have been sent to 14-day judicial custody. 

Earlier in the morning, the number of arrests in the case shot up to 7 with cops arresting former journalist Santanu Saikia and energy consultant Prayas Jain. 

READ ALSO: How it unfolded, what was leaked 

TOI had first reported about Prayas Jain being questioned in the case. Prayas Jain runs an oil and gas firm based in New Delhi and Melbourne. Saikia is associated with an energy portal indianpetro.com. 

Santanu Saikia and Prayas Jain have been accused of buying the leaked documents, analyzing them and selling them off to business houses, police say. 

READ ALSO: RIL, Essar executives among 4 quizzed for 'corporate espionage' in oil ministry 

Blowing the lid off an organized racket allegedly linked to corporate espionage, Delhi Police had on Thursday reported arrest of five people involved in stealing official and classified documents from the Union petroleum ministry and supplying these to business houses, think tanks and lobbyists. 

Among those arrested initially by the crime branch were two present and two former employees (both brothers), all of whom worked as multi-tasking staffers in the ministry located at Shastri Bhawan. 

The arrests took place late on Wednesday night.