The CBI on Tuesday registered the 14th preliminary enquiry (PE) in connection with the Radia tapes case against an income tax officer who was trying to get a transfer by allegedly offering bribes to his seniors.
Besides the officer, a middleman and others have been named in the PE. The enquiry is to verify the allegations that the officer, while he was posted in the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal, was trying to get transferred to Delhi by allegedly paying illegal gratification to the Central Board of Direct Taxes.
The CBI had registered 13 PEs on a directive from the Supreme Court, which had in October asked the investigating agency to probe into the issues related to intercepted phone calls between corporate lobbyist Niira Radia and various politicians, corporate top shots, bureaucrats and businessmen.
The apex court asked the CBI to probe favours allegedly shown to top corporate houses like Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Industries Ltd, his brother Anil Ambani's ADAG group, the Tatas, the working of touts and kickbacks in aviation sector, manipulation of Unitech’s stocks and illegal gratification paid to tax officers.
The court had identified 23 issues, which were framed by a court-appointed probe team on the analysis of the Radia’s tapped conversations. Earlier, the apex court had turned down a suggestion from the CBI that some of the identified issues could be probed by the state police and other agencies.
The CBI will file a status report in the Supreme Court within two months.