Govt orders probe into Radia tapes leak

IB, CBDT asked to check how some media outlets got transcripts.

Weeks after telephone conversations between Niira Radia, lobbyist and owner of Vaishnavi Corporate Communication, senior corporate members and several journalists came to light, the ministry of home affairs has asked the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) and the Intelligence Bureau (IB) to find how the sensitive tapes were leaked to some media organisations and who did it.

The two organisations were earlier involved in tapping Radia’s phone calls for several months on the ministry’s directions. Senior government officials said the home ministry order was given today.

Sources in the government said the tapes were meant for secret use, not for public use. After they were leaked, the transcripts were printed in newspapers and magazines.

Another agency, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), has already said its investigating team was closely examining conversations made during the 5,000 calls that were tapped by agencies. The CBI has already analysed 3,800 calls and 6,000 files of documents in the investigations. It gave a status report in the Supreme Court today.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) had recently questioned Radia for over seven hours and asked her for various documents. The CBI and ED are both investigating the 2G telecom spectrum allocation scam. Former telecom minister, A Raja, had to resign after the tapes were leaked and the Opposition parties squarely blamed him for the loss of money to the government. A report of the Comptroller and Auditor General said the issuance of new licenses at a price fixed in 2001 had caused a loss of Rs 1.76 lakh crore to the government. The report also said as many as 85 new licences of the 122 issued in 2008 were illegal.

 

Also read: ED grills Niira Radia in telecom controversy