Niira Radia off CBI hook for ‘lack of evidence’

NEW DELHI: Former corporate lobbyist Niira Radia can breathe easy with the CBI set to close all cases against her for lack of evidence.

The Supreme Court had asked the CBI to probe "criminality" in 14 issues that were identified by the investigating agency after going through the transcripts of the Radia tapes submitted to it by the income tax department. One-and-a-half years after it began investigating whether Radia provided favours to corporate houses using her alleged links in government, sources said the agency has concluded that there was "no criminality" in any matter.

"The probe revealed that no favour was extended to any company by any official as suggested in the conversations. Radia was just boasting about her links and there is no criminality in that," a senior officer said. Top sources said all 14 enquiries would be closed in the next few weeks