Centre hands over Niira Radia tapes to SC

The government on Thursday placed recorded tapes containing the conversations between corporate lobbyist Niira Radia and others related to the 2G spectrum allocation case before the Supreme Court in a sealed cover.

While placing the recorded conversation before the bench comprising justices G S Singhvi and A K Ganguly, Solicitor General Gopal Subramanium said that it is a hard disc drive directly downloaded from the server which contains the conversations.

However, advocate Prashant Bhushan appearing for the NGO Centre for Public Interest Litigation said though the Central Bureau of Investigation maintains that there were 5,800 conversations, it has prepared the transcript of only 3,000 such conversations.

The Supreme Court had on Wednesday directed that the original tapes containing the conversation between Radia and others pertaining to the 2G spectrum allocation case be handed over to it in a sealed cover.

"We direct that the original records and tapes/ CDs be submitted in a sealed cover after preparing the copies. It will be kept in the lockers of the Supreme Court registry and if required, will be considered for its use," the court had said.

The direction from the bench had come after the government had submitted that it has no objection in handing over the complete set of tapes in the wake of apprehensions that the tapes may be destroyed.

Subramanium had said that he has got instructions that there was no objection in handing over the tapes and the court can give directions for preserving them in whatever way it thinks best.

The apex court had earlier asked the government to respond to the plea for preserving the tapes containing the conversation between Radia and others related to the case.

The bench had asked the solicitor general to take instructions from the authorities on the plea made by the NGO CPIL.