New Delhi: An energy consultant identified as Lokesh Sharma, 33, an employee of Infraline, based in Noida, Uttar Pradesh was arrested on Monday in connection with the corporate espionage scam by the Delhi Police.
He was remanded to five days’ police custody by a city court. High drama was also witnessed in the court with four accused arrested earlier alleging that the police made them sign blank papers while another accused blamed interrogators for beating him up in custody.
Police sources said they have under detention about six coal and power ministry officials who, the police suspects, stole the documents. More arrests were likely on Monday night as the probe officials continued raids in Delhi and the NCR.
Joint commissioner of police (crime) Ravindra Yadav said, “Lokesh would procure documents from the coal, power and petroleum ministries with the help of staff posted there,” adding, “Besides providing documents to his own consultancy firm, he used to sell them to at least two other consultants as well for money.” Sharma is a resident of west Delhi’s Uttam Nagar area.
The police said they learnt of Mr Lokesh Sharma’s alleged involvement from the interrogation of the arrested accused in the case. “A raid was conducted after mounting surveillance on his activities and he was arrested from Dwarka area,” said a source, adding, “Two forged identity cards of the coal and power ministries were recovered from his possession apart from photocopies of various secret documents, after which a fresh case under IPC Sections 457, 380, 465, 468, 471, 411, 120B and 34 was registered.”
Police sources claimed Mr. Sharma was in touch with the arrested former scribe Santanu Saikia and the latter allegedly paid Mr Sharma for documents as well. Mr. Sharma had not worked for any ministry earlier.
“Lokesh’s father, Inder Mohan Sharma, worked as a driver in one of the ministries earlier and we suspect that he garnered his contacts through his father,” said a police source, adding, “Lokesh has been active for more than two years.”
The police added that the company Mr. Lokesh Sharma worked for reportedly has 60-65 employees and has a publication widely circulated in business houses. The firm apparently has a website and a magazine as well, added the sources.
