Document leak: Top Indian Oil official suspended

Public sector oil giant India Oil Corporation (IOC) has suspended a top official whose name had been cleared for the Board of directors of the country's biggest firm by revenue.

Debangshu Ray, general manager (international trade), was suspended on Friday for leaking vital commercial information to a private company, company officials confirmed.

The suspension came days before Ray was to be appointed director (research and development).

"We came to know of irregularities on some instances and we have suspended Mr Ray," IOC director (human resources) Verghese Cherian told news agency PTI in New Delhi.

He refused to state the reason for the suspension.

"We are yet to serve a charge sheet on him; so, I cannot be commenting on the reasons as yet."

Ray was holding a crucial charge as the international division deals with purchases of crude oil in the international market running into billions of dollars.

The petroleum ministry had forwarded Ray's name for director (R&D) after candidature of government headhunter Public Enterprise Selection Board's first choice B P Das was rejected.

Officials said that Ray's name had also been cleared by the Prime Minister's Office and the appointment letter was expected to come in any day.

The incident comes amid a crackdown on leakage of official documents from several ministries including oil, power and coal.

More than a dozen people, including five executives of private companies like Reliance Industries, Essar Oil, Cairn India, Jubilant Energy and Reliance Group, have been arrested for allegedly stealing stacks of government documents.

Recently, Oil and Natural Gas Corporation suspended its director Shashi Shankar over alleged irregularities in an unawarded Rs 23-crore tender. Shankar, who as the head of technology and field services annually handled, at least, Rs 15,000 crore of contracts for rigs and oilfield services, was suspended on February 23 for alleged gross misconduct while dealing with a tender for procurement of 21 blowout preventers (BOP), the oil ministry had said last week.