Exclusive - TAPPED and TRAPPED
and/or www.mantra.com/jai
By J. Gopikrishnan
The Pioneer
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Govt taps PR honcho's phone, gets clinching evidence against Raja
Indraprasth aka New Delhi - The cat is finally out of the bag. The
CBI has acquired clinching evidence showing that a high-profile woman
public relations lobbyist acted as powerbroker in the mutli-crore 2G
spectrum scam and that she was in regular touch with Telecom Minister
A Raja.
The investigating agency unearthed damning evidence of wheeling-
dealing in the spectrum scam by authorised tapping of telephones of
several persons, including Nira Radia, who runs several public
relations and consultancy companies -- like Vaishnavi Corporate
Consultants, Noesis Strategic Consulting Services, Vitcom Consulting
and Neucom Consulting.
All these companies are filled with retired bureaucrats, who
ostensibly lobby with the Government on behalf of different
companies. Radia is an NRI, who landed in India in early 2000 for
some liaison work for aviation companies. Of the nine companies that
benefited from the dubious spectrum allocation by Raja, the CBI found
that four companies were "serviced" by Radia.
Highly-placed sources said the CBI was denied permission by top
authorities to interrogate Radia even though the telephone intercepts
clearly exposed her role in the scam, which cost an estimated Rs
1,00,000 crore to the exchequer.
A communication between the Income Tax Department and the CBI shows
that nine phone lines were tapped by the I-T Department's
investigation wing. The first phase
of 120 days of tapping started on August 20, 2008, and the second
phase of 180 days on May 11, 2009.
Sources in the CBI said that in addition to Radia's, the telephone
lines of several other influential businessmen, politicians and
advertising professionals were tapped for uncovering the extent of
lobbying in the scam.
Sources said that the first-phase conversation tapping, lasting 120
days, exposed the parking of ill-gotten money from the spectrum scam
in the form of real estates holdings, company shares and derivates
within the country and in tax havens like Mauritius.
Documents available with The Pioneer show that Central Bureau of
Investigation DIG Vineet Agarwal had on November 16, 2009, sought
call detail records of Nira Radia from Director General of Income Tax
(Investigation) Milap Jain. "It has been reliably learnt that certain
middlemen, including one Ms Nira Radia of M/s Noesis Consultancy,
were actively involved in the above-mentioned (spectrum scam)
criminal conspiracy," Agarwal's letter to Jain, seeking the detailed
call records, stated.
On November 20, 2009, as per Jain's instructions, Joint Director of
Income Tax Ashish Abrol provided the details of conversation between
Radia and key players in the spectrum scam, including A Raja.
"There are some direct conversations between Ms Radia and the Telecom
Minister. In some other conservations, Ms Radia boasts of having
helped some of the telecom operators in their efforts to obtain
licences/spectrums. Ms Radia has also been in regular touch with Shri
Chandolia," confirmed Abrol to the CBI. RK Chandolia was Raja's
private secretary during the time of spectrum allocation and has
since been elevated as an economic adviser in the Department of
Telecommunication.
"On the basis of specific information received from CBDT, the
telephone lines of Ms Nira Radia and some of her associates were put
under observation after obtaining permission from the Home
Secretary," Abrol wrote to Agarwal in a letter, marked "Strictly
confidential and top secret".
"The intercept provides the conversation of the target and associates
indicating laundering and structured payoffs, transactions and
liaison for projects of telecom, petroleum and also the media," the
I-T Department communication to the CBI stated.
Radia's companies are involved in consulting in telecom, power,
aviation and infrastructure. These entities not only managed the
media but, as per the recorded conversations, apparently tried to
influence policy changes and decisions of various Government
departments to suit the commercial requirements of their clients,
confirmed the Income Tax Department's investigation wing to the CBI
after analysing the telephone conservations.
"From these conversations, it appears that Ms Nira Radia might have
had some role with regards to the award of telecom licences. In a
conversation, she guided a new telecom operator on the need to delay
the inflow of funds from the overseas investor and not to give the
impression to the Government that there has been any 層indfall'
profit," the letter added.
In the conversation details available with The Pioneer, Radia was
talking about arranging huge money from abroad for Unitech Wireless,
which is a major beneficiary in the spectrum scam.
According to CBI sources, Radia got information about the agency's
moves against her from her vast network in the South and North Blocks
and left for London in February to avoid arrest for criminal
conspiracy in the spectrum scam.
"The detailed telephone transcripts of Radia clearly show how our
politicians and bureaucrats were hand in glove with the corporates in
looting the public exchequer," a top CBI official said.
Comment:
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Great Report
By Arjun Kumar Batra on 4/28/2010
Great Report. Congrats to The Pioneer. What more evidence PM and
Sonia needed on Raja's spectrum scam. Raja should be kicked out from
Cabinet? Is Manmohan Singh capable of it? Why Rahul Gandhi, who talks
on everything under the sun is silent on Spectrum scam? All got
money-including black sheeps from Opposition parties..Who is this
Nira Radia? Who prevents CBI from questioning her? Another Sunanda
Puskar?
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
More at:
http://dailypioneer.com/252253/TAPPED-and-TRAPPED.html
Jai Maharaj, Jyotishi
Om Shanti
o Not for commercial use. Solely to be fairly used for the educational
purposes of research and open discussion. The contents of this post may not
have been authored by, and do not necessarily represent the opinion of the
poster. The contents are protected by copyright law and the exemption for
fair use of copyrighted works.
o If you send private e-mail to me, it will likely not be read,
considered or answered if it does not contain your full legal name, current
e-mail and postal addresses, and live-voice telephone number.
o Posted for information and discussion. Views expressed by others are
not necessarily those of the poster who may or may not have read the article.
FAIR USE NOTICE: This article may contain copyrighted material the use of
which may or may not have been specifically authorized by the copyright
owner. This material is being made available in efforts to advance the
understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic,
democratic, scientific, social, and cultural, etc., issues. It is believed
that this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as
provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title
17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without
profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included
information for research, comment, discussion and educational purposes by
subscribing to USENET newsgroups or visiting web sites. For more information
go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml
If you wish to use copyrighted material from this article for purposes of
your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the
copyright owner.
Since newsgroup posts are being removed
by forgery by one or more net terrorists,
this post may be reposted several times.
PVR Pictures
http://www.financialexpress.com/news/tata-supports-niira-in-2g-scam/613073/
Tata Group on Thursday stood behind Niira Raida who was caught in a
controversy over her alleged role in 2G spectrum allocation, an issue
on which the opposition is demanding Telecom Minister A Raja's
resignation.
"The Tata group has had a long and fruitful association with Vaishnavi
Corporate Communications and its Chairperson Ms Niira Radia, which has
added substantial value to the group's communications and public
perception," a spokesperson of the group's holding company Tata Sons
said in a statement.
Tata Sons said that "All of Vaishnavi's interactions with the
Government on behalf of the Tata group have been related to seeking a
level playing field and equity in areas where vested interests have
caused distortions or aberrations in policy.
"Further Vaishnavi's interactions with the Government on behalf of the
Tata group, have, in keeping with Tata values, never involved payouts
or seeking undue favors," the Tata Sons spokesperson noted.
The statement came a day after Parliament was rocked by the
opposition's demand for resignation of Raja, citing reports that he
worked in tandem with a corporate lobbyist in allocation of 2G
spectrum.
The opposition's demand was triggered by a news report that "CBI has
acquired clinching evidence showing that a high profile woman PR
lobbyist acted as a power broker in the multi-crore 2G spectrum scam."
Last evening, the government said in a statement that there were
reports that phones of Niira Radia, who heads a clutch of PR
companies, were tapped, while conversations of several influential
businessmen, politicians and advertising professionals were also
tapped in connection with the allocation of 2G spectrum.
The government had also said in that statement that the IT authorities
had not tapped phones of influential businessmen, politicians and
advertising professionals.
Raja has been facing allegations of distributing new telecom licences
and spectrum at throwaway prices and causing huge losses to the
exchequer. Nine new licences were issued in January 2008 at Rs 1,658
crore for pan-India operations.
CBI is also investigating alleged irregularities in the spectrum
allocation and has registered a case against some unknown officials of
the Department of Telecom for their involvement. But no report has
been given by the investigating agency so far.
On Apr 28, 11:24 am, use...@mantra.com and/or www.mantra.com/jai (Dr.
> impression to the Government that there has been any ‘windfall'