Security Breach AT Note Printing Press

Govt yet to take action on security breach in printing of bank notes-Times of India-23.01.2015

NEW DELHI: At a time when the Narendra Modi government is probing espionage in oil and coal ministries, it is yet to take action on a grave security breach in the printing of currency notes.

An internal inquiry report by a former CBI director recently indicted top officials of the Security Printing & Minting Corporation of India Limited (SPMCIL), a government company, for lapses that led to bank notes using an imported security thread with Arabic inscriptions in 2012 in its Hoshangabad-based mill.

The security thread is the key distinguishing feature in a currency note that helps prevent counterfeiting.

Now, the matter has also come under the scanner of the Delhi high court which earlier this month admitted a PIL and issued a notice to the Centre, SPMCIL and its director M S Rana. The PIL also questions Rana's eligibility for the position of CMD, claiming he was appointed without the requisite clearance from the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC). The court has issued a notice to CVC, seeking answers to the allegations.

Rana has been blamed in the inquiry report for suppressing the incident at Hoshangabad and not putting the facts on record. "Such a grave incident having implications on national security should have been brought on record and handled with greater sensitivity," the report by IPS officer P C Sharma says, referring to the role of the CMD and the corporate office of the company.

The report highlights how despite such a clear breach in security of Indian bank notes, senior officials of SPMCIL and the finance ministry sat on it for months together even as they went into damage control mode.



It was only when a local newspaper in Madhya Pradesh brought out the facts that the then UPA government hurriedly ordered an inquiry, fourteen months later.

When the inquiry report admitted loopholes in quality control measures at SPMCIL and termed the incident a "serious breach of security," an alarmed government roped in the former CBI director in August last year to conduct a full-fledged investigation.

The initial inquiry said that the government could have faced a major embarrassment for circulating bank notes with Arabic security threads. The government may have to explain its stand on the matter before Delhi HC in March, the next date of hearing on the PIL filed by one Ramakant Dixit. Dixit says the government mint, which has a monopoly on printing currency, should be cleaned up.

Rs 10,000 cr Petroleum Ministry document leak case: Delhi Police raids Jubilant Energy’s Noida office-Financial Express

Intensifying its probe into the sensational corporate espionage scandal, Delhi Police Crime Branch today raided the office of a petrochemical company in Noida after it searched the office of arrested energy consultant Prayas Jain.

Police sources said that Subhash Chandra, a senior executive with Jubilant Energy, who was arrested along with four other top officials of energy companies yesterday, was taken to Jain’s office in the morning. After searching Jain’s office, the police team took him to the Noida office of Jubilant Energy. His office and some other rooms were searched by the police to recover stolen documents.

Asked about the issue, Delhi Police Commissioner B S Bassi said, “We have searched places which were necessary for the course of investigation. We may further raid places as our aim is to reach the bottom of the whole thing.”

The five senior executives from top energy firms, who were arrested in the sensational corporate espionage scandal, will be produced in a local court here this afternoon and Delhi Police will seek their custody for further interrogation.

“We had arrested five persons. There interrogation is going on. They will be produced before a local court. We’ll request court to send them to police custody, so we can further interrogate them,” added Bassi.

The police chief also said that investigation is on in the case and it will end only when a chargesheet will be filed.