Arrested journalist Santanu Saikia made a dramatic claim in the corporate espionage case on Saturday by saying that it was a Rs. 10,000 crore scam. "Quote me, I was doing a cover up," Saikia said, adding, "It's a rupees 10,000 crore scam," reports The Times of India.
His statement comes after Union home minister Rajnath Singh said that nobody involved in the scandal would be allowed to get away. "Should be commended that we found out that this was happening, the culprits will be punished," Singh said, adding, "no guilty person would be spared and strictest punishment would be given to them," reports India Today.
Earlier in the day, Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal tweeted that the police should try to reach top people and real beneficiaries. Kejriwal however praised the police for busting the racket.
Five senior energy company employees were arrested by the crime branch on Friday. Police claim that that the stolen documents included confidential information about the coal, power and defence ministries apart from top-secret data of the petroleum ministry.
Those arrested include Shailesh Saxena of Reliance Industries Limited (RIL), Rishi Anand of Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group (ADAG), Vinay Kumar of Essar and KK Naik of Cairn India, reports NDTV.
According to sources the stolen documents also contained information that was to be used by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley for his budget speech on 28 February.
Earlier, former journalist Santanu Saikia and Prayas Jain, an energy consultant in a Melbourne company, were among seven people arrested by Delhi Police for stealing official documents and leaking them to corporate houses.
The theft had been taking place in Shastri Bhavan, where the office of the ministry is located, not too far from the Parliament House.
