Some aspects in Radia phone tapes uncomfortable: SC

The Supreme Court Wednesday said many things in the tapped phone call transcripts of former corporate lobbyist Niira Radia were uncomfortable and the CBI said certain aspects in them required probe.

"The CBI has drawn several conclusions and tentative inferences highlighting many things in this meticulous transcripts. Many things are uncomfortable in it," said the apex court bench of Justice G.S. Singhvi and Justice V. Gopala Gowda. The investigating agency said it needed to register a preliminary enquiry (PE) and conduct a probe, along with other agencies, on some issues related to the transcripts.

The agency said this in its report, based on its scrutiny of the Radia tapes carrying 5,800 telephonic conversations, which were perused by the apex court.

 The CBI submitted its report upon the scrutiny of Radia tapes in the apex court registry July 15. Radia's phones were put under surveillance by the Income Tax department after the finance ministry Nov 16, 2007, received an anonymous letter alleging that in a short span of few years she had built a business empire of Rs.300 crore. The complaint had also alleged foreign connections of Radia.

The Income Tax department put Radia's phone under surveillance thrice for 60 days each between 2008-09. The court was hearing an NGO's petition seeking directions to place the transcripts, which show some illegality or criminality, in public domain and get them thoroughly investigated. The hearing would continue Thursday.