Agusta Westland Chopper SCAM: SC asks CBI to name officers to probe Radia tapes

The Supreme Court on Wednesday sought the names of officers of the CBI, Income Tax department and Enforcement Directorate who would scan the transcripts of former corporate lobbyist Niira Radia's telephone intercepts.

The investigators would ascertain if there was anything in the transcripts that attracted action under law.

A bench of Justice GS Singhvi and Justice SJ Mukhopadhaya asked Additional Solicitor General Harin Raval to give the names of five CBI officers who would go through the transcripts and prepare subject-wise, ministry-wise and time-wise reports for the consideration of the court.

The court also asked Raval to give names of the officers from the Income Tax department and Enforcement Directorate who would be involved in the exercise.

Raval told the court that he would give the list to the court Thursday.

The court said it would pass its order on setting up of the team February 21. The court was hearing NGO Centre for Public Interest Litigation's plea seeking a direction to make the contents of the transcripts public.

Senior Counsel Prashant Bhushan, appearing for the NGO, earlier suggested that the court may appoint a multi-agency task force to go through the transcript of the Radia tapes to ascertain if there was anything that attracted criminal prosecution.

Opposing the suggestion, Raval told the court that the CBI proposed to set up a team of five officers to go through the transcripts which run into 12,000 pages.

Bhushan said the CBI had often taken a stand that their hands were full and could not take up more cases and wondered why they were "anxious to take up such an enormous burden".

He said that even two years after registering the first information report (FIR) in the 2G case the CBI had done did nothing. This prompted Justice Singhvi to observe: "Why repeat it. We all know it."
COURTESY:
Published: Wednesday, Feb 13, 2013, 19:49 IST
By DNA Correspondent | Place: New Delhi | Agency: DNA
http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report_sc-asks-cbi-to-name-officers-to-probe-radia-tapes_1799678