Here is a shocking story about the multi-billion dollar Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group run Reliance Communications group getting embroiled in international espionage and risk the security concerns of our country. The police has widened the area of investigation and are looking into the role of other senior executives of the group to find out at what level the plans had been hatched.

An official attached to Tata group company Videsh Sanchar Nigam Limited in Mumbai has claimed that he was paid off by an executive of Reliance Communications for passing on some sensitive business information.

Prashant Ganpat Indulkar who was arrested for embezzlement in the first week of February, said in a statement before a local court that he was paid Rs 40,000 by Reliance Communications executive one Gaurav Wahi , who in turn has denied his role or involvement , Mumbai Police have said.

Meanwhile, Indulkar had been remanded to police custody till mid February and criminal action against him is likely to follow. The police have said that further interrogation of Indulkar is a must as the receiver of the information passed on by him has to be traced. They did not rule out the involvement of more persons in the case.

Indulkar has been working as personal secretary to VSNL Managing Director N Srinath for the last three years and had vital access to the latter's confidential and relevant personal documents, the police have said in the remand application filed before a local court in Mumbai.

Wahi was called in for questioning by the police on or around 8 February and had denied all allegations leveled against him in toto, according to the police. Indulkar was first arrested by Mumbai police on 1 February, following a complaint of siphoning off Rs 8.7 lakhs , filed against him by theVigilance Department.

Later, Company Secretary and chief legal officer of VSNL, Gopal Ranade also filed a complaint, which led to Indulkar being booked under Section 66 of the IT Act 2000.

Police has claimed that they have seized the CPU of Indulkar's computer in his office and residence and sent some pen drives recovered from him to forensic labs. They are also in touch with various portals like Yahoo, Hotmail and Rediff, where Indulkar has his personal e-mail account.

What hurts is that the Anil Ambani groups, which once prided itself about being the champion of corporate governance has become akin to champions of espionage. ADAG. by allowing such passage of sensitive information, have caused serious security implications as they are contesting with VSNL to carry the country's critical data , both for the government sector and private sector.

By getting caught directly in dissemination of sensitive information and data into wrong hands, ADAG jeopardizes chances of getting $ 400 million that it is seeking from VSNL.



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