Weekend read – What can be a better way than to curl up in your favourite spot with a hot cup of tea/ coffee/ hot chocolate and read all about the Niira Radia tapes and whatever happened afterward?
2G judgment
As December 21st approaches and the 2G Scam cases are reaching the judgment phase, we are bringing to the attention of our readers the infamous Niira Radia Tapes, which actually invited public attention in the 2G Scam. What happened to the probe ordered by the Supreme Court (SC) on the bribe offer, lobbying, and criminality in the Radia Tapes? The main agency entrusted to unearth was the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which has regrettably diluted the probe. We are also publishing the transcript of the 540 conversations at the end of this report.
The CBI did nothing; they just reported to the SC in a sealed cover that there was “no criminality found” after some time by questioning many involved in the conversations including media personalities.
The salient points in the Supreme Court Order by the 2G bench headed by Justice GS Singhvi dated Oct 17, 2013, , are given below:
- A case was filed by business tycoon Ratan Tata to prevent publication of the Niira Radia tapes in 2010. Many including Prashant Bhushan impleaded arguing against Tata’s demand and a 20-page Order came for a probe on the conversations involving commission of criminal offence, rejecting Tata’s petition.
- The CBI and the Income Tax Dept (ITD) submitted a verbatim copy of the 5800 conversations. Only around 540 are in the public domain. After hearing the tapes, CBI and ITD produced the first 17 issues and then identified 6 more issues as being matters of a criminal nature.
First Report on 17 issues are as follows:
- Supply of low floor buses by Tata Motors to Govt. Of Tamil Nadu in JNURM scheme of Government of India.
- Appointment of Pradip Baijal as Pipeline Advisory Committee (Related to Mukesh Ambani’s wishes for Baijal to head the Committee)
- Allotment of Coal Blocks to Anil Ambani’s Sasan Ultra Mega Power Project
- Allotment of Iron Ore mines at Ankua, Singhbhum District of Jharkhand to Tata Steel
- Regarding favours by VK Sibal, DG Hydrocarbon to Mukesh Ambani & quid-pro-quo
- Fudging of the subscriber base by Anil Ambani’s Reliance Communication and fooling the Stock Exchanges
- Working of touts in Civil Aviation Sector
- Corruption and malpractices in Judiciary, Judges and Tribunals
- Allotment of Iron Ore Mine to Anil Ambani without having a steel plant.
- Allotment of additional spectrum to Anil Ambani’s Reliance
- Dayanidhi Maran giving money to Dayalu Ammal (Karunanidhi’s wife) for Cabinet Berth
- Sending of nephew of DMK leader Arcot Veeraswamy to Tata Consultancy Services, London on behalf of A. Raja
- 2G Spectrum allotment to Unitech[1] and offloading of shares to Telenor
- Manipulation and hammering of Unitech shares
- Sale of Greenhouse Company by A. Raja to Shahid Balwa
- Possession of Petroleum Ministry papers by a journalist Jaiswal
- Scrutiny of SMSs found in relevant hard discs
Status
Issues 1 – 7, 14: The SC directed the CBI to register a Preliminary Enquiry (PE) and submit a report on within two months.
Issue 8: As it is regarding Judiciary malpractices, Order says, decided to inform Chief Justice of India for “appropriate action”.
Issue 9: Sent to the Chief Vigilance Officer of Mines Ministry.
Issue 10, 13, 15: These are related to the ongoing CBI investigation in 2G, and therefore no order was passed. Issues 13 and 15 are already covered in the main 2G charge sheet in some ways.
Issue 11, 12, 16, 17: were ignored by the SC. Issue 11 is an internal family deal making in DMK Chief Karunanidhi’s family and money exchanges for giving berths in the Union Cabinet in 2009.
CBI Action
The CBI did nothing; they just reported to the SC in a sealed cover that there was “no criminality found” after some time by questioning many involved in the conversations including media personalities. It must be mentioned that Issue 13, 14 are related to Unitech share sales to Telenor and the hammering of Unitech shares in Stock Exchanges.
As far as Issue 6 is concerned – Fudging of subscriber base by Anil Ambani’s Reliance Communications and fooling the Stock Exchanges – Though the CBI did not act, the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) found this fraud and now they got a notice from the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) to pay a fine. No final action till date has come from the SC. It is still in Preliminary Enquiry (PE) stage.
It is certain that all in power wanted to hush up the probe in Niira Radia tapes as everyone’s buddies and girlfriends are involved in the Niira Radia tapes.
Below is a copy of the transcript of the 540 conversations leaked from Niira Radia tapes:
Niira Radia Transcripts 576 Pages by PGurus on Scribd
[1] Swamy files petition in 2G Court against Ratan Tata & Niira Radia for covertly funding Unitech licenses – Dec 16, 2016, PGurus.com
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What is the present BJP governement doing for the past three plus years .Why there is no action.
Is the information regarding the action taken on Issue 8 by the then CJI, or his successors, in the public domain? If not, shouldn’t it be, given that justice should also be ‘seen’ to be done?
I m with VINAY GOUTAM . I already know about DR. SWAMY. He is capable to disclose all hidden content in this case. B+
Why blame the CBI? It is the political leadership which collapses all such investigations. All want to save their buddies caught in this case. How long can officers fight?