JOIN USSC for thorough CBI probe into Radia tapes
The Supreme Court said on Wednesday that a “thorough” investigation by the CBI was required in view of several “uncomfortable” issues tumbling out of the telephonic conversation between former corporate lobbyist Nira Radia and various prominent persons, including former Tata group chairman Ratan Tata.
After going through reports on transcripts of the tapes, a bench of justices G S Singhvi and V Gopala Gowda said: “The team has drawn several conclusions and tentative inferences from these transcripts of conversations. It has highlighted many things, which are uncomfortable. There are certainly matters to be investigated.
There are at least 10 cases of such nature. Some of the items highlighted will become the subject matter of investigation. We will direct thorough investigation into all these issues and there is no doubt about it.”
Tapped Conversations
Representing the CBI, Additional Solicitor General Paras Kuhad handed out a summary of the analysis of 5,800 tapped conversations.
He pointed out that at least four cases needed investigation and fresh preliminary enquiries could be registered in two cases right away.
He submitted that there were also materials which could be probed by state police only, as those were outside the jurisdiction of the CBI.
The bench also questioned as to why the Income Tax department did not prepare transcripts of these tapped conversations on its own and waited for a court order.
The court also expressed its concern over the leakage of vital information as big companies hired people who have access to classified data.
The bench will continue hearing on Thursday.