By IANS,
Chennai : AIADMK chief J. Jayalalithaa Friday demanded that the Income Tax department, Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and Enforcement Directorate act against those who figure in the taped conversations with corporate lobbyist Nira Radia.
“These tapes are available with the Income Tax department. They are available with the CBI and with the Enforcement Directorate. If these institutions are really free, if they are not under pressure to proceed selectively in cases relating to public persons, if they are interested in upholding probity in public life and the rule of law, then action should be taken against all concerned under appropriate laws,” she said in a statement issued here.
Tapes containing Radia’s conversations with former communications and IT minister Raja and some industrialists and journalists have surfaced. The tapes were submitted as part of the evidence in a public interest litigation over the 2G spectrum allotment row.
The tapes include conversations Radia had with journalists Barkha Dutt and Vir Sanghvi and others pertaining to lobbying for ministerial berths for DMK MPs in 2009.
“More than 500 hours of telephonic conversations had been taped. Of these, less than 15 minutes of tapings have now been exposed by the media. And these mainly show the first family of Tamil Nadu in their true colours,” she said.
“The contents have not been controverted or denied by any of the persons concerned, even a week after they were made public. So we can safely assume that every word is the truth and nothing but the truth,” she said.