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Radia tapes more serious than 2G scam, Supreme Court says -Dhananjay Mahapatra
-The Times of India


NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Wednesday said intercepted phone conversations of former corporate lobbyist Niira Radia indicated her alleged influence in every field of decision-making and wondered why investigating agencies, despite being aware of the Radia tape contents, did not take action for four years.

"We are unable to appreciate one thing. Virtually in every field, which should be with the government, a private person, call her a liaison officer or a middleman, she is in every nook and corner," a bench of Justices GS Singhvi and V Gopala Gowda said.

But the bench was quick to clarify that it was not pre-judging the contents of the tapes. "We will not make a pre-judgment of the conversations. But we find from the material that it is much more serious than the 2G spectrum scam. It is much, much more. Telecom was only one part of it," it said.

The CBI had looked into the conversations during its probe into alleged irregular allotment of 2G spectrum and had utilized the contents of over 200 conversations to identify the accused and their alleged activities prior to allocation of UASL licences in January 2008 during the tenure of A Raja as telecom minister.

Justices Singhvi and Gowda recalled that when the Radia tapes were first brought into the judicial domain for scrutiny, the apex court had prima facie felt that more FIRs, apart from the ones registered in the 2G spectrum scam, might be needed to be lodged. "We will hear on Monday what steps were taken after we ordered analysis of the Radia tapes," the bench said, putting the agencies virtually on notice to inform what steps were taken on the investigation front.

"Almost four years have passed. It talks of issues ranging from trans-border transactions to foreign entities buying out media houses. This is very, very serious matter," the bench said and wondered aloud, "which field is not covered by the lady?"

Senior advocate KK Venugopal, who is assisting the court given his familiarity with the subject while representing CBI in the court-monitored 2G scam probe, said, "There should have been greater and in-depth investigations (into the Radia tapes) as some of them disclose alleged criminality more serious than the 2G scam. It could relate to money laundering."

Appearing for NGO 'Centre for Public Interest Litigation', advocate Prashant Bhushan said the reason for inaction was simple - corporate entities, on whose behalf Radia was acting, were so strong that no one dared to initiate action.

Appearing for CBI, additional solicitor general Paras Kuhad informed the bench that the agency had been receiving portions of the Radia tapes from time to time from the income tax department. He said the Supreme Court had on December 6, 2010 ordered transcription of all 5,831 intercepted conversations in the Radia tapes and the entire tranche of transcripts were handed over to CBI only in February 2013.

The income tax department, which had intercepted Radia's phones with authorization from the home ministry, through additional solicitor general PP Malhotra, showed files to the court to dispel the perception that intercepted conversations, some of which reflected 'criminality', were slept over and not shared with investigating agencies like CBI and Intelligence Bureau.

I-T department files handed over to bench by advocate Padmalakshmi Nigam showed that the first tranche of Radia tapes were given on November 16, 2009 to Intelligence Bureau, which apparently shared it with CBI, prompting it to write to the I-T department on the same day seeking details.

The department also said the entire tranche of intercepted conversations were handed over to CBI as far back as May 20, 2010 and that the ministry of home affairs was kept informed about the sharing of information with the investigating agencies. The arguments remained inconclusive.