Days after the Supreme Court directed the CBI to probe 14 issues pertaining to criminal dimensions of conversations between former corporate lobbyist Niira Radia and various high-profile individuals, the agency on Tuesday instituted four Preliminary Enquiries (PEs). The process of registering 10 more PEsis also being initiated.
According to the CBI, the first PE relates to Ms. Radia’s conversations with the former TRAI Chairman Pradeep Baijal on his appointment as head of the Pipeline Advisory Committee, purportedly with a view to favouring Reliance Industries. The second PE is in connection with her conversations on alleged discrepancy in the subscriber database declared by Reliance Communications to the Bombay Stock Exchange and TRAI in order to save money. The company has also been mentioned in the PE. While the third PE has been instituted against Ms. Radia and unknown officials of BHEL for alleged payment of commission for clearance of bills, the fourth is related to the grant of spectrum to Unitech.
The court instructed CBI to submit a report within two months.
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