14 preliminary enquiries (PE) were initiated by CBI to probe the contents of the 8,000-odd phone conversations taped by the Income Tax Department as part of an inquiry
New Delhi: The Central Bureau of Investigation gave a clean chit to Niira Radia and others in the leaked tapes case on Wednesday. CBI stated that no case was made out against those accused.
14 preliminary enquiries (PE) were initiated by CBI to probe the contents of the 8,000-odd phone conversations taped by the Income Tax Department as part of an inquiry. These conversations were taped over a decade ago. Now as no case was made out, all the 14 PEs have been closed.
The agency’s statement was made in reference to its report that was submitted to the court in a sealed cover. But at the time of the filing, media reports citing CBI sources said that the agency had uncovered no wrongdoing in Niira Radia’s purported connections to government figures and businessmen in the 2G spectrum issue.
She had landed in this controversy following the leak of alleged taped conversations between her and her clients in connection with the 2G scam. Her PR company, Vaishnavi Corporate Communications and its affiliates, which served a number of wealthy clients, including the Tata Group and Reliance Industries, was closed down.
As a part of the surveillance of Radia’s phone on a complaint to the then Finance Minister on November 16, 2007, her conversations were recorded.
“The probe revealed that no favour was extended to any company by any official as suggested in the conversations. Radia was just boasting about her links and there is no criminality in that,” a senior officer was quoted by The Times of India at the time.
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In PEs CBI had named big industries including Tata Steel, Reliance Industries Limited, and Unitech amongst others.
On this issue two petitions were filed, one was filed by former Tata Sons Ltd chairman Ratan Tata and the other was filed by the Centre for Public Interest Litigation. Ratan Tata claimed that some of these conversations, being private in nature, should not have been leaked to the media. Centre for Public Interest Litigation sought these transcripts to be made public in the larger public interest.
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