JOIN USCops file second FIR in espionage case
Confidential government documents were also stolen from the offices of Union Coal Ministry and Union Power Ministry and sold to private energy consultancy firms, said the Delhi Police on Monday.
A fresh case has also been filed over the matter with the crime branch police station. It was done after Lokesh Sharma was arrested with documents from Union Coal Ministry in Shastri Bhawan and Union Power Ministry in Shram Shakti Bhavan.
The second FIR is different from the first one, which was registered on February 18, in connection with documents stolen from the Union Petroleum and Natural Gas Ministry.
Lokesh, 33, a resident of Mohan Garden in west Delhi’s Uttam Nagar, worked with Noida-based energy consultancy firm Infraline. He has been described by investigators as a “buyer of information”.
“Lokesh used to procure documents with the help of staff posted in coal, power and petroleum ministries. Besides providing documents to his own consultancy firm, he used to sell them to some other energy consultants as well on commercial basis,” said Joint Commissioner of Delhi Police (Crime) Ravindra Yadav. Two of the recipients were Santanu Saikia of Indian Petro Group and Prayas Jain of Metis Energy Solutions.
A raid was conducted after mounting surveillance over the activities of Lokesh and he was nabbed from south west Delhi’s Dwarka with two forged ID-cards of Union Coal Ministry and Union Power Ministry, and photocopies of various secret documents. Lokesh faces charges under Sections 457 (lurking house trespass), 380 (theft), 465 (forgery), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating), 471 (using as genuine a forged document), 411 (dishonestly receiving stolen property) and 120-B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code.
As the police are contemplating invoking the Official Secrets Act(OSA), they did not submit the FIR at the court where they requested for Lokesh’s custody. The police said that if the OSA is invoked in the case, then classified documents cannot be placed on record and the FIR thereafter becomes a classified document.
Delhi Police Commissioner
B S Bassi said that with Lokesh’s arrest, a second module involved in the racket has been busted. He said that the second FIR was registered on Sunday. When asked about the need to file a second FIR, Bassi said, “It is a second module. It is separate and has no linkages with that particular case, though it belonged to the same class. Since it lacked linkages, we have arrested him under a separate FIR.”