New Delhi: A 2G court on Tuesday will hear the Central Bureau of Investigation's plea for placing on record a CD of 62 conversations of Niira Radia with industrialists, politicians and journalists. The CBI claimed that it has already submitted transcripts of 12 of those conversations.
Former telecom minister A Raja, a key accused in the 2G spectrum case, has opposed the CBI's plea for placing on record the Radia tapes. The court will also hear CBI's plea to call Anil Ambani as witness, sources had added.
Special Public Prosecutor UU Lalit had told the court these transcripts relate to the conversation between Radia and other individuals and the calls were intercepted by the Income Tax Department.
A total of 5,800 calls were intercepted by the Income Tax Department and only these 62 conversations were "directly or remotely" related to the 2G spectrum case, Lalit had said. The CBI's plea was opposed by the counsel appearing for the accused saying that transcripts cannot be taken on record at this stage and the agency should have done it earlier.
In the transcripts produced before the court, Radia is allegedly discussing the issue of lobbying for 2G licences for her clients Unitech and Tata Tele Services Ltd (TTSL) and how certain rivals were on the verge of getting it. On May 28, the court had also deferred the recording of statement of Radia saying that it would be continued after the issue of placing on record the transcripts and CD is decided.
In her deposition as a prosecution witness in the case, Radia had said that TTSL, which was ahead in the queue for allocation of 2G spectrum, lost the race while an "ineligible" Swan Telecom, said to be owned by ADAG Reliance Communications, was granted the radiowaves. 53-year-old Radia, who had appeared for the first time in the court on May 28 as a CBI witness, had said that she was advising the Tatas on telecom issues and TTSL had opposed the allocation of spectrum to Swan Telecom Pvt Ltd (STPL) and Reliance Communications Ltd.
The CBI, in its chargesheet, had alleged that Reliance Telecom Ltd (RTL), an accused in the case, used Swan Telecom, an ineligible firm, as its front company to get licences and the costly radio waves. STPL and its promoters, Shahid Usman Balwa and Vinod Goenka, who were arrested and are at present on bail, are facing trial in the case along with former telecom minister A Raja, DMK MP Kanimozhi and others.
In her statement recorded during the probe under section 161 of the CrPC (dealing with examination of witnesses) before CBI, Radia had said that STPL, facing trial in the 2G case, was "not eligible" to get the Unified Access Service.
(With Additional Inputs From PTI)
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