New Delhi, Apr 3 (PTI) A six-member CBI and Income Tax team has
begun its work of examining over 5800 tapes of tapped conversation
of corporate lobbyist Niira Radia with politicians, corporate honchos
and others.
The team, headed by a Deputy Inspector General-rank officer, has
started the process of going through the tapes and its transcripts
running into 49 volumes last week as per the directions of Supreme
Court in February this year, official sources said here.
An apex court bench comprising justices G S Singhvi and S J
Mukhopadhaya, while directing formation of the team on February 22,
had given four months for it to submit its report.
The team would be scrutinising the tapes to ascertain if there were
any elements of "criminality" in them. It would be limited to those
conversations which pertain to criminal element and relating to interest
of justice.
Few tapes, which found its way to media houses, triggered a political
storm as some of the conversations showed the nature of corporate
lobbying and its purported impact on politics.
The income tax department has placed transcripts of 5,800 tapped
telephone conversations in sealed envelopes. They were recorded as
part of surveillance of Radia's phone on a complaint to Finance Minister
on November 16, 2007 alleging that within a span of nine years she
had built up a business empire worth over Rs 300 crore.
The IT department had recorded 180 days of Radia's conversations
- first from August 20, 2008 for 60 days and then from October 19
for another 60 days.
Later, on May 11, 2009, her phone was again put on surveillance
for another 60 days following a fresh order given on May 8.