The government has revoked the suspension of Thomas Mathew, a director in the Union home ministry who was chargesheeted by the Central Bureau of Investigation along with three others under the Official Secrets Act for allegedly leaking documents to tehelka.com.
Mathew has rejoined the ministry but has not been assigned any posting or desk so far, official sources said in New Delhi today.
Mathew, along with section officer Neeraj Kumar and two tehelka.com journalists, Anirudhha Bahal and Mathew Samuel, were chargesheeted last year.
According to the CBI's complaint, Kumar, Mathew, Bahal and Samuel allegedly entered into a criminal conspiracy to obtain secret documents which were put up on tehelka.com, on October 9, 2000.
The CBI filed a case after a joint secretary in the home ministry ordered an inquiry by the Intelligence Bureau, following the publication of a story by tehelka.com, 'Are the Dutch innocent?' which contained information allegedly obtained from a secret file.
The CBI claimed that Kumar, Samuel, Mathew and Bahal were very thick, and that Samuel had frequented North Block from August 19 to November 16, 2000.
The CBI also claimed to have found that Mathew had issued a priority certificate to Bahal on October 24, 2000, for issuance of a passport to him.
