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Radia Tapes
Govt orders probe as Tata moves SC
Tribune News Service & PTI

New Delhi, November 29
The government today ordered a probe into the leaks of recorded tapes of conversations between corporate lobbyist Nira Radia, her clients and certain journalists among others.

Home Ministry sources said the probe would be conducted by the Intelligence Bureau and the Central Board for Direct Taxes (CBDT) and will focus on finding out who leaked it and how.

Incidentally, the CBDT had conducted the phone tappings over a period of time for which the sanction was given by the Home Ministry.

The move followed as Tata group chairman Ratan Tata moved the Supreme Court today seeking a probe into the leakage of his telephonic talks with controversial corporate lobbyist Nira Radia.

In a petition filed in the apex court, Tata has also pleaded for a directive to the Union government to prevent the leakage of details relating to more such talks tapped by the Income Tax Department for the purpose of checking tax evasions.

Leakage of such conversations infringed upon his fundamental right to privacy, the main component of right to life guaranteed in the Constitution, he has contended in the petition.

Clarifying that he was not opposed to the tapping of conversations by official departments for ensuring compliance of tax and other laws, he said the information obtained this way should be strictly utilised only for the purpose it was meant for.

Further, the transcripts of tapped conversations should be destroyed in six months as laid down in the SC guidelines in a PIL case filed by the People’s Union for Civil Liberties, the petition said. All private conversations recorded in the course of official tapping should be deleted immediately as these had nothing to do with the investigations by the official departments and agencies, it contended.

Tata has sought a direction for fixing the responsibility for the alleged leakage of the tapes. The public relations company of Nira Radia is in the eye of a storm in the wake of the 2G spectrum scam, which according to the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) involves a whopping Rs 1.76 lakh crore.

Radia’s alleged conversations with politicians, industrialists and journalists have somehow been leaked to the media, creating a major controversy. The Tata group had also hired her PR firm. As per the CBI, which is probing the alleged 2G spectrum scam, it was examining transcripts relating to 5,000 calls. Nearly 104 tapping records are out in the market, sources said.

Tata has sought a direction for fixing the responsibility for the alleged leakage of the tapes. Tata has made the Union Home Secretary, CBI, Income Tax Department, Department of Telecommunication and Department of Information Technology as respondents in the petition.