CBI seeks to place in court CD of Radia's conversations

The Central Bureau of Investigation on Tuesday moved a Delhi court seeking permission to place on record a CD of 62 intercepted telephonic conversations of former corporate lobbyist Niira Radia with various persons in connection with the 2G spectrum allocation case.

Special Public Prosecutor U U Lalit said out of the 62 taped conversations, the agency has already submitted the transcripts of 12 conversations and sought special CBI court's permission to place on record the transcripts of rest of the 50 conversations.

He also said the transcripts related to conversation between Radia and other individuals and the calls were intercepted by the Income Tax Department.

CBI's application was opposed by the counsel, appearing for accused, saying the transcripts cannot be taken on record at this stage and the agency should have done it earlier.

They contended that the prosecution cannot be allowed at this stage to fill their lacunae by placing on record these transcripts.

Special CBI Judge O P Saini asked the accused to file their response to the application and posted the matter for hearing on July 2.

"Defence counsel sought sufficient time to reply to CBI's application. Put up for reply on July 2," the court said.

The court also deferred Radia's recording of statement which would be continued after the issue of placing on record the transcripts and CD will be decided.

During the hearing, CBI prosecutor said they have already placed on record transcripts of 12 intercepted calls and they had felt that rest 50 transcripts were not of much importance.

"But for fairness, we are now placing on record rest of the 50 transcripts," Lalit said, adding that it is just for a formality.

He also said a total of 5,800 calls were intercepted by the IT Department and only these 62 conversations are directly or remotely related to 2G spectrum case.