Oil Ministry leaks: Accused say they were forced to sign on blank papers

New Delhi: Four of the accused arrested in the corporate corporate espionage case on Monday alleged that they were forced to sign on blank papers by the police during their custodial interrogation. [caption id=“attachment_2117045” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Accused in the Oil Ministry leaks case Shantanu Saikia being produced before a court. PTI[/caption] “We have been made to sign on blank papers. What is going on?” said Shantanu Saikia while being escorted to the courtroom in police custody. “I never did what is alleged against me. I have been a journalist for past 30 years and I have been victimised,” he told reporters. His counsel also made the allegations before Metropolitan Magistrate (MM) Dheeraj Mittal where the other accused were also produced after the expiry of their three days’ police remand. The other three accused Lalta Prasad, Rakesh Kumar and Prayas Jain also made similar allegations. All the four accused were sent to 11 days’ judicial custody till 6 March after Delhi Police said they were no longer required for custodial interrogation. Another person Lokesh, working in a Noida-based consultancy firm, was arrested on Monday and police allegedly recovered from his possession “sensitive” documents pertaining to ministries of Coal, Power and others. The fresh arrest brings the number of those in police net to 13. He was produced in Dwarka court before Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (CMM) Satish Kumar Arora who remanded him to five days police custody on the ground that he has to be quizzed to unearth the conspiracy and for arresting others associated with him in the case. PTI