Radia Tapes: CBI registers four enquiries, 10 more soon

NEW DELHI: Following the Supreme Court’s orders, the CBI on Tuesday has registered four Preliminary Enquiries (PEs) pertaining to Niira Radia tapped conversations issue, a CBI spokesperson said.

The four PEs pertain to the conversation between Pradip Baijal and Niira Radia for appointment of new member on Pipeline Advisory Committee to allegedly favour Reliance India, discrepancy in subscriber data base declared by Reliance Communications to Bombay Stock Exchange and Trai, payment of commission in BHEL for passage of bills and grant of spectrum to Unitech, the spokesperson said.

CBI was asked by the Supreme Court to proceed as per its CBI manual in the matter, which provides for lodging of PEs first before proceeding with an FIR. The apex court in an order last week had directed the CBI to conduct a probe into eight issues identified by the CBI after transcribing the Radia tapes.

The four issues in which the CBI is still to lodge PEs or FIRs as per the court’s orders are supply of low floor buses by Tata Motors to Tamil Nadu under JNNURM scheme, allotment of coal blocks to Sasan ultra mega power project run by Anil Ambani Group, allotment of iron ore mines at Ankua, Singhbhum District of Jharkhand to Tata Steel and working of touts and middlemen and kickbacks in aviation sector.