Two officials from the environment ministry and the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) were arrested in connection with the official documents leak case, police said .
Delhi Police have arrested Jatinder Nagpal, who is personal assistant to the joint secretary in the ministry of environment, forests and climate change. He was arrested Wednesday night along with Vipan Kumar, who is personal assistant to a member of the UPSC.
Police said both of the accused were detained Tuesday and were questioned in connection with the petroleum and other ministries’ document leakage case, which was unearthed Feb 17 night, with the arrest of two former MTS employees of Shastri Bhawan.
Police added that Vipan Kumar, who was earlier working with the ministry of petroleum and natural gas, used to get important/secret documents with his contacts in the ministry.
Informed sources said that Jatinder Nagpal, a resident of west Delhi’s Hari Nagar area, was detained two days ago as his name was revealed during the interrogation of Lokesh Sharma, an employee of a Noida-based energy consultancy Infraline Energy.
Vipan Kumar’s name also cropped up during Lokesh Sharma’s interrogation.
Sharma, in his 30s, was formerly with the multi-tasking staff (MTS) at Shastri Bhawan. A resident of Vijay Nagar in west Delhi’s Uttam Nagar area, he was arrested from Dwarka Feb 22. He is currently in judicial custody.
Sources added that both used to provide documents to Lokesh Sharma and Prayas Jain, an employee of Melbourne-based Metis Energy Consulting and Research Services — with whom they had links for over two years.
Prayas Jain is in judicial custody till March 6. Both the accused would be produced at the Dwarka court after 2 p.m. Thursday, sources said adding that police would seek their remand.
So far, 16 people, including Jatinder Nagpal and Vipan Kumar, have been arrested and Delhi Police have registered two FIRs in connection with the leak of classified documents related to various ministries, including coal, petroleum and natural gas, and power.
Nagpal and Kumar’s names are mentioned in the second FIR which was registered Feb 20.