CBI registers 4 PEs in Radia case

Three days after a Supreme Court order, the CBI has registered four preliminary enquiries in connection with the tapped conversation of lobbyist Niira Radia. 

The agency is in the process of initiating preliminary enquiries (PE) in 10 other cases mentioned by the apex court.

On Saturday, the Supreme Court said the CBI would probe favours allegedly shown to top corporate houses like Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Industries, his brother Anil Ambani's ADAG group, Tatas, working of touts, kickbacks in aviation sector, manipulation of Unitech's stocks and illegal gratification paid to tax officers.

Officials said the agency has registered a PE into Radia's alleged conversation with Pradip Baijal, ex-chief of TRAI, allegedly pertaining to his appointment as Chairman of Pipeline Advisory Committee to allegedly favour Reliance Industries. The agency has named Baijal and Radia in the enquiry.

Another preliminary enquiry deals with Radia's conversations pertaining to alleged discrepancy in subscriber database declared by Reliance Communications to BSE and TRAI while another deals with alleged payment of commission for clearing bills from BHEL by Radia's company. 

The agency has also started an enquiry against Vishal Mehta, the then Chief Eexecuting Officer of Vaishnavi, unknown officials of DoT and unknown officials of Unitech in connection with grant of spectrum to Unitech.

The Supreme Court had identified 23 issues, which were framed by an apex court-appointed probe team on the analysis of the tapped conversations of Radia with bureaucrats, politicians, corporate tycoons and scribes. It then ordered a CBI probe into 14 issues last week.