Corporate espionage: Congress for stringent action against perpetrators

The Congress on Saturday called for stringent action against those involved in corporate espionage and asked the government to share the relevant facts pertaining to the case before the nation at an appropriate time.

"Obviously, this kind of an espionage is a serious issue. This has been going on under the very nose, in fact in the room of the minister. Therefore, there is a great issue of accountability. Very strong measures must be taken, relevant facts must be shared at some level with the nation," Congress leader Abhishek Manu Singhvi told ANI here.

When asked about the arrest of former journalist Santanu Saikia, Singhvi said, "Journalistic privileges will apply whenever the genuine scams are unearthed. This is an issue not only about Saikia or the journalistic privilege; it is an issue about stealing secrets for money and passing them on."

The executives from five energy companies - Shailesh Saxena (Manager, Corporate Affairs, RIL), Vinay Kumar (DGM, Essar), KK Naik (GM, Cairns India), Subhash Chandra (Senior Executive, Jubilant Energy) and Rishi Anand (DGM, ADAG Reliance), were arrested by the Delhi Police late on Friday evening.

Two other persons arrested yesterday are Santanu Saikia, who runs energy portal, and Prayas Jain, an energy consultant. With this, the number of people arrested in this corporate espionage case has reached 12.

Santanu Saikia and Prayas Jain have been sent to police custody until February 23 along with two others, who were arrested earlier. Three others have been already in judicial custody for 14 days.