The CBI on Tuesday registered four Preliminary Enquiries to probe any possible criminality relating to the tapped conversations of controversial corporate lobbyist Niira Radia with bureaucrats and top industrialists.
CBI sources said four PEs have so far been registered on the instructions of the Supreme Court and the process of initiating enquiries in 10 other issues flagged by the apex court.
The sources said the agency has registered a PE into Radia’s conversation with Pradip Baijal, former chief of TRAI, allegedly pertaining to his appointment as Chairman of Pipeline Advisory Committee to allegedly favour Reliance Industries ltd.
The agency has named Baijal and Radia in the enquiry, the sources said.
It has also started a PE into Radia’s conversations pertaining to alleged discrepancy in subscriber data base declared by Reliance Communications to BSE and TRAI, the sources said, adding that the company has been named in the enquiry.
The sources said a PE against Radia, unknown officials of her company Vaishnavi and unknown officials of BHEl has also been registered in connection with the alleged payment of commission for clearing bills from the public sector undertaking.
The agency has also started an enquiry against Vishal Mehta, the then CEO of Vaishnavi, unknown officials of DoT and unknown officials of Unitech in connection with grant of spectrum to Unitech.
A Supreme Court bench headed by Justice GS Singhvi had last week ordered a CBI probe into 14 issues from the tapped conversations of Radia.
The matter related to supply of low floor buses by Tata Motors to Government of Tamil Nadu under Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission(JNNURM) scheme of Government of India has been referred to Chennai branch of the CBI, the CBI sources said, adding a PE would be initiated soon.
The apex court asked the CBI to investigate alleged criminal misconduct by public servants in respect of survey/raid conducted by Income Tax department, payment of illegal gratification to tax officials to get work done and conversations regarding allocation of spectrum.
The bench said, “The subjects mentioned in the eight issues are prima facie indicative of deep rooted malaise in the system of which advantage has been taken by private enterprises in collaboration/connivance with the Government officers and others.The conversations between Niira Radia and her associates with various persons suggests that unscrupulous elements have used corrupt means to secure favours from the Government officers, who appear to have acted for extraneous considerations”.