Document leak: Four accused sent to police custody

A court in Delhi Friday sent a former journalist and three others to police custody till Feb 23 in connection with the petroleum ministry document leakage case.

Santanu Saikia, who runs a web portal and covered the crime beat for several years, was sent to police custody along with Prayas Jain, a Melbourne-based energy consultant; and Rakesh Kumar, 30 and Lalta Prasad, 36 -- both brothers and residents of Delhi.

Police, while seeking their custody, told the court that questioning is required over the leakage of "sensitive" documents and to trace other associates involved in the crime.

The court also sent Rajkumar Chaubey, 39, a resident of Ghaziabad; and government employees Asharam, 58 and Ishwar Singh, 56, to judicial custody for 14 days.

Earlier, all the accused were presented in the Patiala House court before Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Sanjay Khanagwal in connection with their alleged role in providing secret documents of the petroleum ministry to corporate houses.

All the seven arrested have been charged under various sections of the IPC relating to theft, forgery, trespass and criminal conspiracy in leaking the documents.