Petroleum ministry leak case: Accused sent to jail

New Delhi: A court in Delhi Friday sent all seven accused in the petroleum ministry document leakage case to jail.

All the accused were produced in the Patiala House court in connection with their alleged role in providing secret documents of the petroleum ministry to corporate houses.

Santanu Saikia, who runs a web portal and covered the crime beat for several years, was sent to police custody till Feb 23 along with Prayas Jain, a Melbourne-based energy consultant; and Rakesh Kumar, 30 and Lalta Prasad, 36 -- both brothers and residents of Delhi.

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.

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.