As more skeletons tumble out of Nira Radia tapes, the role of several Income Tax officials has come under scanner for helping the corporate lobbyist evade taxes to set up her huge illegal empire.
The CBI dropped hints of its latest discovery on scrutiny of the intercepted calls, which raised disturbing questions as to why no investigation was initiated by the IT department, which snooped on Radia’s phones in the months following August 2008. While details relating to 2G Spectrum scam alone was in the open, the apex bench of Justices GS Singhvi and
V Gopala Gowda, which examined the remaining tapes, wondered how the conversations, containing more serious issues relating to national security, never came to the notice of the higher ups in the Government.
The mystery stood solved when CBI in its report filed in a sealed cover hinted at the complicity of certain IT officials with Radia. On Tuesday, the bench observed, “The report of the CBI indicates they (IT department) were hand-in-glove with Radia.” The report hinted at the role of certain IT officials who blinked on huge monies evaded as tax by Radia’s companies.
With this, the bench assured the agency that all its investigation will be “court monitored”. But taking into account that an enormous task of listening and transcribing 54,000 calls was set before the agency, the court asked IT department to spare 10 officers for the task. It posted the matter for October 18 when it will decide the composition of the team, the members of which would not be changed till the entire exercise was over.The agency informed that the entire task may require three months to be completed.