Union telecom minister A. Raja has retained his job despite being under scanner by two top government agencies. The income tax (I-T) department and the CBI have been on his trail for over six months. Taped conversations between Raja and high-profile corporate lobbyist Nira Radia revealed the DMK leader may have lobbied with her for the telecom portfolio in the UPA government.
The tapes aired by Headlines Today were not random, unauthorised phone recordings. They were part of an I-T probe being carried out with the government's approval. The I-T sleuths were snooping on Radia after getting permission from the home secretary.
The I-T department had written to the home ministry seeking permission to record Radia's telephone conversations to investigate some financial irregularities in the 2G spectrum allocation. The permission was granted to tap Radia's phone for 300 days.
Headlines Today has in its possession a letter written by Ashish Abrol, joint director, I-T, to CBI deputy inspector general (DIG) Vineet Agarwal informing him about the probe. The letter raises a number of concerns about the activities of Radia.
Dated November 20, 2009, the letter reads: "On the basis of specific information received from the CBDT, the telephone lines of Ms Nira Radia and some of her associates were put under observation after obtaining permission from the home secretary." It further claims that the powerful corporate lobbyist might have played a role in the award of telecom licences.
"There are direct conversations between Nira Radia and telecom minister A. Raja. In some other conversations, Ms Radia boasts of having helped some of the telecom operators in the effort to obtain licenses and spectrum," the letter states.
The letter was sent by the I-T department to the CBI at a time when the investigating agency was already probing Raja. The CBI sleuths had raided Raja's telecom ministry office in October 2009 following the 2G spectrum sale.
An FIR (No. RC DAI 2009 A 0045) was lodged in the case on October 21, 2009. A criminal case was filed under Section 120 B of the IPC with Sections 13 (2) and 13 (1)(d) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988. But nothing has come of it so far.
The I-T department, on its part, has been filing monthly status reports of its probe since August 2008, but they have been gathering dust. Headlines Today has dug out two of these reports filed in June and July 2009.
Despite two its own agencies investigating a senior minister and finding evidence against him, the government appears to be dithering on acting against Raja.
The ruling party, instead, put up a brazen defence of Raja. Congress spokesperson Manish Tiwari said: "The minister is the victim of the corporate war… The first thing that has to be established is whether this tapping was authorised or not.
"If it was unauthorised, then it calls for very serious action against those people who have been misusing their licence conditions and tapping people's phones illegally and then distributing it around for corporate advantage. "Tearing into the Congress's defence, BJP leader Arun Jaitley said: " You have corporate lobbyists involved in the process of allocation of portfolios. You have corporate lobbyists involved in the allocation of 2G spectrum. I don't think if somebody cannot see the racket that's going on. "The man in the middle of the raging storm remains unfazed. A day after he dismissed the existence of the tapes with arrogant flourish, Raja on Friday defended himself but didn't deny that the conversations took place.
"I've not heard the conversation, but I've seen the scripts. (I) presume that the scripts are correct.
Nothing is surreptitious in the conversation. I am not a fool to believe a third force can offer a ministerial berth other than my leader Kalaignar ( Karunanidhi), the PM and Sonia Gandhi," he said.
Raja seems to have forgotten what he told Radia on May 24, 2009. The taped conversations record him asking Radia: "My case is cleared?" She replied: "Yeah, your case was cleared last night itself."
http://m.indiatoday.in/itwapsite/story?sid=96447&secid=4
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