CBI notice to 2 Tehelka scribes

NEW DELHI, AUG. 12. The CBI has served notice to two journalists of the Tehelka website to probe the alleged leaking of documents from the Home Ministry, agency sources said here today.

Agency sources said that the two - Mr. Mathew Samuel and Mr. Anirudh Bhalal - would be questioned by the agency's Special Crime Branch, which registered a case against Mr. Neeraj Kumar, suspended Section Officer in the Ministry, under the Official Secrets Act.

The Government had asked the agency to go into the entire circumstances under which the story was leaked to the Tehelka website. Mr. Kumar is alleged to have leaked documents pertaining to the functioning of an NGO in the north-east to the web portal.

The portal ran a story about the NGO's role in north- east militancy, which was later withdrawn.

The two had been asked earlier also but Mr. Bhalal was away on a foreign trip and Mr. Mathew was unavailable, the sources said. The agency had allegedly recovered some ``hand- written'' notes from the residence of Mr. Neeraj Kumar which were claimed to be pertaining to the north-east.

- PTI

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