Espionage case: After Mumbai-based CA, CBI arrests 2 more

The CBI has been granted transit remand for a Mumbai-based chartered accountant the agency arrested on Thursday, for allegedly leaking and selling confidential documents related to foreign investments, from the finance, commerce and industry ministries.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has been granted transit remand for Khemchand Gandhi, the Mumbai-based chartered accountant the agency arrested on Thursday, for allegedly leaking and selling confidential documents related to foreign investments, from the finance, commerce and industry ministries.

Gandhi was produced before the special CBI court on Friday. The agency will have to produce him before the Delhi court in three days. The CBI said Gandhi deposited money in the accounts of government officials in the Union ministry in exchange for information, which he passed on to companies on his client list.

The CBI said they searched Gandhi’s house and office and recovered incriminating material, including receipts that show Gandhi had deposited money in government officials’ accounts.

The CBI said they recovered confidential documents and Rs 60 lakh from Gandhi’s house. They found electronic documents on laptop and hard disks. Gandhi had deposited money in the accounts of Lalaram Sharma, a section officer in the department of economic affairs, and Ashok Kumar Singh, an undersecretary in the department of disinvestment — both were remanded in police custody.

Gandhi has denied all allegations and his advocate moved for bail. The court refused bail saying, “The material placed, the evidence produced, indicate this is against national integrity...”

On Friday, the CBI arrested Paresh Chimanlal Buddhadev, from Chitale & Associates for obtaining classified records and destroying evidence, and Ram Niwas, an assistant in the economic affairs department, for selling classified documents from the Foreign Investment Promotion Board.