Petro-gate: Court dismisses bail plea of journalist

A Delhi court on Monday dismissed the bail plea of a senior journalist who was arrested along with 12 others for their alleged roles in the Petroleum Ministry documents leak case.

Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Sanjay Khanagwal rejected accused Shantanu Saikia's bail application which was opposed by the Crime Branch of Delhi Police, saying that incriminating documents have been recovered from him.

During the arguments, the investigating officer said that Saikia is running a webportal Indian Petro Group and he used to analyse these documents and sell it to his clients at a higher rate.

"80 sets of documents have been recovered from his house and office.

“These documents were not in public domain and 23 sets of these documents were secret/confidential in nature," the IO said adding that bail pleas of some of the co-accused have already been dismissed by the court.

The IO also said that Saikia was also paying Rs 50,000 per month to co-accused Lalta Prasad in lieu of the documents procured through him.

Saikia, who himself argued on his bail plea as the district courts lawyers are observing strike, said that there was no financial transactions as alleged by the police and whatever he was doing was purely in capacity of a journalist.

He said that as per the charge sheet, the ministry of petroleum and gas has said that the documents recovered were not in public domain.

"But they (ministry) are not saying that these documents are sensitive," he said, adding that he was forced to sign on blank papers by the cops when he was in police custody.

Saikia said that a journalist is required to do stories on the basis of documents which are not in public domain.

He told the court that police is alleging that he had conspired to commit the offence but there was no meeting of the minds as he did not know the other arrested co-accused corporate executives.

Crime Branch of Delhi Police has recently filed a chargesheet against Saikia and 12 others, including five corporate executives, for their alleged roles in the case.

As soon as the arguments began, Saikia told the court he has been a journalist and later on started his web portal.            

"I wrote in much greater details about the petroleum sector on my website. The information was not provided in this sector and the idea was to keep the information in closed doors," he said.

On being asked by the court regarding the documents recovered from his possession, he said he was forced to sign on blank papers by the police.

He said that being a journalist, one was required to look for information which was outside the public domain and a scribe has to cultivate sources for information.

Saikia also said that he was being ‘terrorised’ in judicial custody despite the fact that he was innocent until proven guilty by the court.

"I have been in jail for around 62 days.

“The so called incriminating documents are deposited in the malkhana of the crime branch.

“None of the witnesses named in the charge sheet are related to me. I cannot influence them. If I am granted bail, there is no way that I can influence anyone or tamper with the evidence," he said.

Regarding the charges slapped in the charge sheet, he said, "is there anything stolen from the government or have any complaint been lodged with the crime branch that something has been stolen".

He told the court that after his arrest in the case, he has no money to pay for education of his son who has a fundamental right to get educated.

Saikia also alleged that he has undergone ‘inhuman’ treatment in the crime branch during police custody and his health has deteriorated.

He had earlier contended that he was in jail because of his profession but other scribes doing stories on the Cabinet note, which was a classified document, have faced no action.

He had also argued that he was facing the ‘ordeal’ for the past two months in jail because he dared to travel in a domain not open to public.