Corporate Espionage: Did NGOs get details too?

As the investigations into the corporate espionage continue, the investigators say that this was an operation that was going on for at least 7 to 8 years now. Although the petroleum ministry it only in the month of December 2014, investigations have found that the same team could have been part of this racket since the past 7 to 8 years.

Earlier in the day the Home Minister Rajnath Singh assured that none would be spared. All the guilty would be brought to book he said.

Familiar faces

Most of the accused who have been arrested in connection with this case were brought face to face with officials in the ministry. Many had recognized them and even said that they saw them almost everyday.

They would come and speak to two officials and then leave. Many officials thought there were part of the ministry and did not ask questions. Not once in all these years did any of them even suspect what these persons were upto, investigations have also found.

The accused persons were careful to ensure that the same persons continued with the operation over years. If different persons entered into the ministry then it could have raised an alert. The modus operandi was pretty much the same all these years, an officer with the crime branch informed oneindia.

Investigating the corporates

Going by the statements made by the Home Minister, it indicates that none would be spared and even the high and mighty will be punished. The Delhi police is scanning the phone records of the accused persons. The number of meetings and at which levels were the calls being made are all under scrutiny.

The Delhi police say that they are also probing to find out if files in the Defence ministry too had gone missing. It is a high profile ministry and we find no reason to believe that these accused would not have tried laying their hands there too.

The corporate firms will have to cooperate and as of now they have assured of all support. If the need be we will question more persons in the corporate sector to get to the bottom of the matter.

The profits that the corporates made or attempts made by them to influence policy decision is also being probed. We are looking at the extent of the benefit the corporates got through this operation, the Delhi police also say.

NGO link

When asked if there was any NGO link to this operation, the Delhi police say that so far nothing concrete has come up. We are finding out if any of these persons were part of any NGO and could have used this information to pass it on abroad.

Several NGO's have been blacklisted by the Intelligence Bureau for acting contrary to the interests of the country. Many have testified against India and we feel that some leaked information could have been shared abroad as well.

However we are taking it one at a time and currently the focus is on extracting as much information as possible from the arrested accused persons, the officer part of the probe also informed.