Premature to call Niira Radia a spy: Pranab

NEW DELHI: Niira Radia has denied that she had indulged in anti-national activities and blamed "vested corporate interests" for launching a "derogatory campaign" against her even as finance minister Pranab Mukherjee on Sunday said it was too premature to judge if Radia was a spy or not.

The comments come in the backdrop of a government affidavit in Supreme Court, which said Radia's phones were tapped following complaints of her being a foreign spy and her meteoric rise in building a business empire worth Rs 300 crore in a short span of nine years.

Radia's firm Vaishnavi Communications said in a statement, "Various queries seem to arise from a case which is subjudice before the Supreme Court to which we are not a party. We have complete faith in the investigative and judicial process of the country. However, it may be stated that in 2007, certain vested corporate interests had circulated an inadmissible and forged letter with malicious, baseless and derogatory content."

It added, "We had categorically denied the baseless allegations to the media in 2007. The forgery of such a document was also shared with the media then."

In the affidavit, government had said it was alleged that Radia was an agent of foreign intelligence agencies and she was indulging in anti-national activities.

The government said Radia's phone conversations were recorded as part of the surveillance ordered by the Directorate General of Income Tax (Investigation) following a complaint received by the finance minister on November 16, 2007, alleging that Radia had within a short span of nine years built up a business empire worth Rs 300 crore.

The Vaishnavi statement said Niira Radia would cooperate fully with government agencies.