INDIAN police have arrested seven people, including government employees and a former journalist, saying they planned to steal and sell off official documents from the country’s oil ministry.

Thursday’s arrests were the first high-profile incidents since anti-spying cameras were installed at the ministry.

The Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry warned last year that “business espionage” was a major threat for Indian firms.

Attempting to stem the flow of illicit information, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s administration installed closed-circuit cameras late in 2014 to prevent people sneaking out of the oil ministry with documents of interest to big corporations competing for lucrative oil blocks.

New Delhi police said they had been tipped off that people were “trespassing” in ministry offices at night, using false identity cards, temporary passes and duplicate keys to officials’ offices.

“Investigations further revealed that the stolen documents were being sold to individuals in private energy consultancy companies” as well as in the petrochemical or energy industry, police said.

Police did not provide any names, but an official at Reliance Industries, one of India’s largest conglomerates, said one of its officials had been detained in connection with the case.

The official said that the company was unaware of any other details and it was conducting its own internal investigation.

“We are determined to co-operate in every possible manner,” the Reliance official claimed.

However, he refused to confirm media reports that police had searched Reliance offices.