The Central Bureau of Investigation on Wednesday registered eight more Preliminary Enquiries (PEs) in the Niira Radia tape case. Pursuant to a recent Supreme Court directive, the agency on Tuesday instituted four separate inquiries pertaining to the tapes.
Among the second set of PEs filed is one relating to procurement of low-floor buses by the Tamil Nadu government under the JNNURM scheme of the Central Government.
Another PE is against the then Jharkhand Chief Minister Madhu Koda and unknown officials pertaining to alleged misconduct in the allotment of iron ore mines at Ankua in Singhbhum district of Jharkhand to Tata Steel. The third PE is into the suspected working of touts and middlemen, besides payment of kickbacks, in the aviation sector. The PE is against private persons and unknown officials of the Civil Aviation Ministry.
The fourth PE is on the purported criminal misconduct of public servants and role of private persons with respect to surveys and raids conducted by the Income Tax Department. The fifth one relates to alleged payment of illegal gratification by private persons to Income Tax officials to get work done. The sixth PE has been instituted into alleged favours shown by the then Director General of Hydrocarbons to RIL and the quid pro quo received.
The CBI has registered the seventh PE to probe allegations of accommodation entries, paper companies, bogus billings and cash payments provided to various persons. “The PE has been initiated to see if there was any criminality and professional misconduct against a chartered accountant, unknown private persons and public servants.”
The eighth inquiry has been initiated against private individuals regarding alleged market manipulation and hammering of stocks of a particular company by its rival.
