New Delhi: It's the 5000-odd unpublished tapes that have India Inc. sweating.
As the Intelligence Bureau and Central Board of Direct Taxes launched a probe into how wire-tapped conversations between ministers, a professional lobbyist and top journalists got leaked to the media, the government has indicated that the unpublished recordings form the heart of a much larger tax evasion probe.
The conversations of corporate lobbyist Niira Radia was tapped by the Income Tax department in 2008-2009, with approval from the Home Secretary, as part of their investigations into possible money laundering, restricted financial practices and tax evasion.
Home Secretary GK Pillai said in an interview to The Wall Street Journal that the 100 tapes that have been leaked to the media are barely the tip of the iceberg.
"The investigation part is much more, which has not yet come out," Pillai said. "The parts that have come out aren’t really connected to the investigation."
The leaked tapes raised questions about media ethics based on conversations between prominent mediapersons and political powerbrokers on the formation of the Cabinet last year, the feud between the Ambani brothers and the controversial allocation of 2G mobile phone spectrum in 2008.
Pillai said the government is closely scrutinizing potentially illegal movement of funds in and out of India. But he did not throw light on the persons being probed or the likely charges against them.
The Central Bureau of Investigation handed over taped conversations of Radia, trying to secure tax concessions and manage favours for top industrialists, to the Supreme Court.
The CBI has said in an affidavit that it would complete the 2G spectrum probe by March 2011, and that it is examining transcripts relating to Radia's phone calls and documents. The Enforcement Directorate (ED) grilled Radia for more than eight hours in November.
However, as more tapes become public, as Pillai said they will be at some point of time since the Supreme Court has asked for a full set of copies and can be petitioned to release them eventually, the spotlight is likely to shift from the media to corporate India.
Some of the corporate world's best known names have either had conversations with Radia or their names have been mentioned during her conversations with others in various connection.
The leaking of the Radia tapes has spooked the corporate establishment, Pillai said. He is now getting calls from the honchos of India Inc. to find out if they, too, are being tapped.
Tata group chairman Ratan Tata has moved the Supreme Court seeking a direction to the government to probe the leakage of tapes containing his private conversations with Radia, and stop further publication of the recordings.
Tata sought action against those involved in leaking the tapes alleging that it amounted to infringement of his fundamental Right to Life, which includes right to privacy under Article 21 of the Constitution.
The names of former CII head Tarun Das, billionaire brothers Mukesh and Anil Ambani, Bharti Enterprises Chairman Sunil Bharti Mittal and Manoj Modi figure in the Radia tapes.
Modi, a top lieutenant of Reliance Industries' Chairman Mukesh Ambani, is already under the CBI scanner in a case relating to masking of international calls as local, causing huge revenue loss to the government.
Meanwhile, Radia's public relations firms Vaishnavi Group has said that the company is "fully transparent" and that the lobbyist is cooperating with financial authorities.
"Vaishnavi & Mrs Radia have not received any tax notice during the period in question. We were not aware of any such investigation and have been compliant with payments of all taxes and filings," WSJ quoted the firm as saying via e-mail.
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