RIL Staffer Detained in Corporate Espionage Case, Shares Fall

Reliance Industries shares fell as much as 3.4 per cent on Friday on news that an employee of the company has been detained in the corporate espionage case involving the alleged leak of classified documents from the petroleum ministry to corporates.

The confidential information was allegedly shared with corporate houses and had details of policies used for oil exploration, pricing as well as imports.

A Reliance official confirmed on Thursday night that an employee of the company had been detained. "We are unaware of more details. An internal probe is underway as per our robust internal standards," the official said.

RIL, which is the third most influential stock in the blue chip Nifty index, was the top loser. The stock closed 3.2 per cent lower at Rs 872.8, underperforming the broader oil & gas sub-index on the BSE, which ended 1.8 per cent lower. Among other energy shares, Cairn India ended 0.5 per cent lower at Rs 253.1, while Essar Oil edged up 0.09 per cent to Rs 112.15.

Mumbai-based Reliance Industries is India's biggest energy firm in the private sector. It is a Fortune Global 500 company and is the largest private sector company in India.

The Group's activities span exploration and production of oil and gas, petroleum refining and marketing, petrochemicals (polyester, fibre intermediates, plastics and chemicals), textiles, retail, infotel and special economic zones.