New Delhi: A Defence Ministry staff member, who was arrested for his alleged involvement in the corporate espionage case, was on Tuesday remanded to one-day police custody by a Delhi court which also sent the five corporate executives to nine-day judicial custody.
Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (CMM) Sanjay Khanagwal sent Defence Ministry’s house-keeping staff member Virender Kumar to police custody till tomorrow after the crime branch of Delhi Police sought his custodial interrogation to find out about his role in the case. The crime branch officials told the court that Kumar was arrested yesterday night 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.
The crime branch officials 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 CMM asked police whether any documents were recovered from Kumar’s possession and why his police custody was needed. To this, the crime branch official said no documents were found but it is yet to be ascertained whether he supplied similar forged I-card to other people or not for which his custody is needed.
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 in police custody till today, were sent to judicial custody till March 5 after the crime branch officials said their custody was not required as of now. The court asked the police if any new recoveries have been made from the five accused, to which the Investigating Officer (IO) replied in negative.
During the hearing, the counsel for the accused moved applications seeking medical facilities in jail for their clients who claimed to be suffering from various ailments. Senior advocate Ramesh Gupta, appearing for Saxena, said that his client complained of urinary bleeding during police custody and was taken to hospital where several tests were conducted. Gupta and counsel for the other four accused also alleged that their clients were beaten in police custody and made to sign blank papers. The court then issued a notice to jail superintendent saying “file report within 48 hours about the medical condition of the five accused.
Direction also issued to provide necessary facilities to accused in jail till further order.” (PTI)
