Corporate espionage: Defence Ministry staffer sent to JC till Mar 5

A Defence Ministry staff member, who was arrested for his alleged involvement in the corporate espionage case, was today sent to judicial custody till March 5 by a Delhi court.

Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Sanjay Khanagwal remanded Defence Ministry's house-keeping staff member Virender Kumar to eight-day judicial custody after the crime branch of Delhi Police said he was not required for custodial interrogation.

Kumar was arrested on February 23 and was yesterday sent to one day police custody by the court to enable the cops to understand his alleged role in the case.

The crime branch officials had earlier told the court that Kumar was arrested for allegedly stealing an identity card of an auditor at Indian Defence Accounts Service and providing the same to one of the accused, Lalta Prasad, in the case.

They had said that Kumar had stolen the I-card and then forged it to pass it on to Prasad, who used it to secure entry in various ministries.

The court had yesterday sent to judicial custody till March 5 five corporate executives--Shailesh Saxena from RIL, Vinay Kumar from Essar, K K Naik from Cairns India, Subhash Chandra from Jubilant Energy and Rishi Anand from Reliance ADAG-- who were produced from police custody, after the crime branch officials said their custody was not required.

The court had asked the police if any new recoveries were made from the five accused, to which the Investigating Officer (IO) had replied in negative.
The police had alleged materials recovered from them show "national security was taken for a ride."