Cbi Inquiry Ordered Into Phone Tapping Episode

The controversy over Tata Teas alleged links with secessionist Assamese militants took a fresh twist yesterday, with the police claiming that the company had links with yet another Assam militant outfit, the National Demo-cratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB), even as the government ordered a comprehensive inquiry by the Central Bureau of Investigation into the tapping of Bombay Dyeing chairman Nusli Wadias telephone conversations with industry big guns.

It was not immediately clear whether the CBI would even conduct what is technically known as a preliminary enquiry.

Special branch inspector-general of police R Ramachandran yesterday told PTI in Guwahati that Tata Tea managing director R K Krishna Kumar had been summoned by the police for questioning on October 11. Executive director Saeed Kidwai was grilled yesterday on the companys alleged links with Ulfa militants.

The IGP said top Tata Tea executives held an important secret meeting with the NDFB in the second week of February 1997, at a five-star hotel in Delhi. He added that the police had documentary proof of Tata Tea having paid the airfares of four NDFB leaders, but said details of what transpired at the meeting were not yet known.

According to Ramachandran, confessions during interrogation by local Tata Tea executives revealed that the companys general manager, S S Dogra, and community development manager Brojen Gogoi who are both under arrest at present on charges of aiding and abetting insurgency attended the secret discussions.

The IGP said Tata executives interrogated so far initially concealed the information about meetings with Ulfa militants in Thailand and Bangladesh, besides the companys links with NDFB. The information about the Tata Tea-NDFB nexus was exposed only during investigations in the last five days.

The CBI inquiry ordered yesterday will be limited to the tapping, it seems, for the spokesperson clarified that investigations into what had been revealed by transcripts of the taped conversations could be conducted by the Assam government any time.

The inquiry is to be conducted on the basis of a written complaint sent yesterday to the CBI by the Mumbai office of MTNL, which is run by the central government.

The Indian Express published four transcripts on Sunday and Monday of conversations between Nusli Wadia, apparently to defend the beleaguered Tata Tea company, and Keshub Mahindra, Jayant Malhoutra, Ratan Tata and Sam Manekshaw.

The tapes seemed to indicate that Tata Sons chairman Ratan Tata and R K Krishna Kumar knew that Gogoi was staying at a Tata guest house in Calcutta when they denied any knowledge of his whereabouts to Assam government officials.