Telecom firm hand seen behind Radia tape leak

The tapping was done at the request of the I-T department

Sources privy to the investigations claimed that the probe so far had indicated that a mirror image of the entire conversation was stored in the data bank of the telecom company, where the tapping was done on the instructions of the government.

The tapping was done at the request of the Income Tax department after taking sanction from the competent authorities. The role of a senior Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) official was also examined and it was found that he was not instrumental in leaking the tapes of over 5,000 calls recorded by the Income Tax department.

Over the next few days, senior officials would be summoning the nodal officers of the telecom company for questioning.  If any criminality is found, the case would be handed over either to police or the CBI for prosecution of the persons, the sources said. As per the CBI, which is probing the alleged 2G spectrum scam, it was examining transcripts relating to 5,000 calls.

Nearly 104 tapping records are out in the market, official sources had said.

Plea before Supreme Court

Meanwhile, the Supreme Court was told on Tuesday that the Radia transcripts should not be held back from public gaze as people have a right to know how officials are functioning. “People have a right to know what public officials were doing,” senior counsel Prashant Bhushan told an apex court bench of Justice G S Singhvi and Justice A K Ganguly.

Bhushan, who appeared in the apex court for the Centre for Public Interest Litigation, told the court that the intercepts were a telling commentary on how things were done in the government.

"I have just filed 104 conversations," Bhushan said, adding that there was an attempt that transcripts of 5,851 intercepts do not see the light of the day. He said that people have a right to know about every transaction and conversation in the spectrum scandal.
The senior counsel told the court that these tapes revealed how Radia had access to nearly every bureaucrat and could get any information.

Bhushan said she was trying to manipulate the proceedings of parliament so that a particular corporate house could benefit to the tune of Rs 81,000 crore in tax concessions.

The court said: "In a way, you are trying to say that she is virtually controlling the parliamentary proceedings."

When Bhushan described Radia as a “wheeler dealer”, the court observed: "According to her she is a consultant and according to you she is wheeler dealer."