Documents leak case: Six accused granted bail

A court here on Tuesday granted bail to six people, including former journalist Santanu Saikia and four executives of private firms, who stand accused in the petroleum ministry documents leak case.

Additional Sessions Judge G.S. Saini granted bail to the six accused and asked them to furnish a personal bond of Rs.50,000 each and a surety of a like amount.

The six accused who were granted bail are Santanu Saikia, who runs a web portal; RIL corporate affairs manager Shailesh Saxena; Essar deputy general manager Vinay Kumar; Reliance ADAG deputy general manager Rishi Anand; Cairns India general manager K.K. Nayak; and Virender Kumar, employed as a casual worker in the defence ministry.

Last week, a court granted bail to Jubilant Energy's official Subhash Chandra.

Police have formally charged 13 people under various sections dealing with cheating, forgery, trespass, theft, common intent and criminal conspiracy on April 18.

Prayas Jain, a Melbourne-based energy consultant, was also charged by Delhi Police in the case with other accused Lalta Prasad and Rakesh Kumar, both brothers and residents of Delhi; Rajkumar Chaubey, a Ghaziabad resident; and government employees Asharam and Ishwar Singh.

Delhi Police registered a first information report (FIR) for the leak of classified documents related to various ministries, including petroleum and natural gas, on February 17.