Lawyer R K Anand will move the Delhi High Court, seeking vacation of the stay on circulation and release of his book Close Encounters with Niira Radia.
The Delhi HC on Wednesday had stayed the release and circulation of the book authored by Anand on his association as a lawyer with the corporate lobbyist, who was representing a United Kingdom-based firm in a case.
Addressing a press conference, Anand told mediapersons that the book was already available in the market since the first week of May, and claimed that it was on the list of the top five books in the publishing circles.
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He ridiculed Radia's threat to file a defamation suit against him, as he claimed that the book was based on his dealings with her in a particular case.
He wanted to know why the Central Bureau of Investigation was protecting her by calling her as a witness instead of hauling her up for hatching criminal conspiracies, leaking out confidential cabinet decisions to the captains of the industries, getting public interest litigations in the Supreme Court at the behest of certain powerful individuals and trying to implicate other corporate businessmen in the 2G spectrum scam.
When questioned why did Niira Radia approach him, Anand claimed that the Civil Aviation Ministry had detained three KLM aircraft, and the company agreed to pay him a fee of $550,000,00 if he could secure a release. "
He alleged, "She wanted a 60-40 cut from the deal, which I refused. I got the three aircraft released, but to my dismay, the money was never transferred to my account."
"When I asked the UK branch of KLM about this, I was told that Radia had taken the entire money on my behest, through a letter dated July 1998 and not July 1999 as mentioned in the communication," he alleged.
"It was only after I moved the HC, that the money was transferred to my account," he claimed. He also distributed copies of relevant documents to the media persons as proof.
"You can defame someone who has something to lose. Radia, who has spent 10 years in the UK, has been responsible for a lot of companies going bankrupt.
India Today Executive Editor Inderjit Bhadwar said that the court order was unjustified.
