CBI registers four PEs in Radia tapes case

CBI said the probe into these cases would be completed in the next two months.

Stepping up probe in the Niira Radia tapes case,the CBI registered four preliminary enquiries PEs Tuesday and said more PEs would be registered as directed by the Supreme Court. The matters in which PEs have been registered include a conversation between Pradip Baijal and Radia for appointment of a new member on the pipeline advisory panel to allegedly favour Reliance Industries Limited,alleged discrepancy in subscriber database declared by Reliance Communications to BSE and TRAI,alleged payment of commission in BHEL for passage of bills and grant of spectrum to Unitech.

The other matters under scrutiny include supply of low-floor buses by Tata Motors to Tamil Nadu under JNNURM,allotment of coal blocks to Sasan Ultra Mega Power Project run by the Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group,allotment of iron ore mines at Ankua in Singhbhum district of Jharkhand to Tata Steel and alleged favours by V K Sibal,then chief of the Directorate General of Hydrocarbons,to RIL in a quid-pro-quo deal.

Touts,middlemen and kickbacks in the aviation sector,market manipulation and alleged hammering of Unitech stocks,alleged criminal misconduct by a public servant in respect of a survey/raid conducted by the I-T department,illegal gratification to I-T officials to get work done,a chartered accountant working as tout for an I-T officer and illegal gratification/favours to public servants were also under scru-tiny,said officials. An SC Ben-ch of justices G S Singhvi and V Gopala Gowda sought probe in 14 of the 23 issues flagged by a special CBI team that scrutinised conversations between former corporate lobbyist Radia and others,including industrialists and journalists.

Conversations of Radia and associates with various persons suggest unscrupulous elements used corrupt means to secure favours from government officers,who appear to have acted for extraneous considerations, the SC observed.

The CBI said the probe into these cases would be completed in the next two months,after which it will be decided whether to register a regular case. Officials said the agency had set up a special team to probe the cases. They said the team would submit its report on the PEs by December 16.