New Delhi: The government has told the Supreme Court that it authorized the tapping of PR executive Niira Radia's phone. Some of those conversations with politicians, industrialists and others have been leaked to the media and have been reported on widely. The government has also said that while the leak should be investigated, it cannot stop the media from publishing transcripts of the conversations on the leaked tapes.
Rata Tata, who is one of Radia's biggest clients and was on the leaked tapes, had last month filed a case against the government in the Supreme Court on the grounds that the leaked tapes encroached upon his right to privacy.
Tata said that while he had no objection to any investigation by the government, his conversations with Radia that were made available to the public were of a personal nature and are irrelevant to charges like tax evasion and foreign exchange violations, which are among the reasons why Radia's phone was allegedly tapped from 2008-2009.
The tapes are also being used by the CBI to investigate the details of the 2G scam. Believed to be India's largest-ever scam, it saw 2G spectrum being given at what are described as inexplicably low prices by former Telecom Minister A Raja to companies who were later found to be ineligible by experts.
The government's response was filed by the Ministry of Finance. It said that the process of tapping Radia's phone began on August 19, 2008 after a complaint received by the Finance Minister on November 16, 2007.
5800 phone calls were tapped during two periods: 120 days in 2008 and 60 days during 2009.
The affidavit also states that the tapes were not leaked by the Income Tax Department.
Read more at: http://www.ndtv.com/article/india/radia-tapes-centre-responds-to-ratan-tata-71823?cp
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