Ex-Trai chief Pradip Baijal alleges CBI pressured him to blame Shourie, Tata in 2G scam: report

In a new book Baijal alleged that A Raja and Dayanithi Maran may have been working in tandem with Manmohan Singh, Chidambaram and Kapil Sibal

The former chairman of Trai has alleged in a new book that A Raja and Dayanithi Maran may have been working in tandem with Manmohan Singh, Chidambaram and Kapil Sibal 

Former Trai chairman Pradip Baijal has alleged in his book that the CBI tried to force him to implicate former Cabinet minister Arun Shourie and industrialist Ratan Tata in the 2G scam, if he wanted to rescue himself, the Economic Times reported Tuesday.

The report, quoted Baijal as writing in 'The Complete Story of Indian Reforms: 2G, Power and Private Enterprise - A Practitioner's Dairy' that the CBI "harasses upright civil servants and political opponents of the government in power". 

It also quotes Baijal as likening the CBI enquiries against him to a witch hunt. “They (CBI) would alternately threaten to harm me and my family and then dangle a carrot of sparing me if I implicated Ratan Tata and Arun Shourie,” the bureaucrat has purportedly written in the chapter 'The 2G scam and a retired bureaucrat's ordeal'. 

Baijal wote, "They (CBI) had warned me in each case that I would be harmed if I didn't cooperate. Incidentally, this was exactly what the eminent economist Prime Minister had told me would happen if I did not cooperate in their scheme of things in the 2G case."

Baijal was being probed by the CBI in several cases, including the 2G scam, leading to enquires about the Niira Radia tapes. The ET report states that most of the probes were closed by the CBI due to lack of evidence. 

"In the 2G case, they (CBI) had told me that there was an open and shut case against me, and an FIR would be filed soon, and I would be arrested," Baijal has claimed in the book. 

He adds that "This was suspiciously similar to Dayanidhi Maran's threats in 2004. It only dawned on me later that perhaps this was being done either by Dayanidhi Maran and A Raja, acting together or by corporates who were trying to protect their self-interest. Dayanidhi Maran knew exactly what I discussed with the PM. I can only surmise that they were all working in tandem, possibly along with the PM (referring to Manmohan Singh), (P) Chidambaram and Kapil Sibal at different stages, and were guiding the CBI enquiry, getting files removed and, making false statements in the media to make a case against the erstwhile Trai."

There were no immediate comments available from the former Prime Minister, while Baijal told PTI "I have said everything. It is 100 per cent correct and I have evidence to prove everything."

This is the third book in last more than a year that has come to haunt Singh and his government about state of affairs during his regime. The first book was written by his aide and media advisor Sanjaya Baru and later by former coal secretary P C Parekh who is also an accused in the case relating to coal blocks allocation.

The book is reported to have a detailed account of Baijal's interaction with the CBI, during different probes over the years, which he claims has caused him a lot of damage.