With the scope of investigations in the Niira Radia tapes widening to include charges of espionage, finance minister Pranab Mukherjee on Sunday said it was premature to call the corporate lobbyist a spy. ?Until the investigation is complete, the judicial process is complete and the court gives its verdict, who can sit in judgement,? Mukherjee said when asked whether Radia was a spy.
Mukherjee?s comment assumes importance in the backdrop of an affidavit filed by the government in the Supreme Court, where it was stated that Radia?s phones were tapped following complaints of her being a foreign spy and she building up a business empire of Rs 300 crore in a short span of nine years.
The affidavit was filed in connection with industrialist Ratan Tata?s plea to the Supreme Court seeking steps by the government to stop the publication in the media of the leaked transcripts of tapped conversations between him, his corporate lobbyist Niira Radia and others.
In the affidavit filed on Saturday in the Supreme Court, the government had said that it was alleged that Radia was an agent of foreign intelligence agencies and she was indulging in anti-national activities.
The government said that conversations were recorded as part of the surveillance ordered by the Directorate General of Income Tax (Investigation) following a complaint received by the finance minister on November 16, 2007, alleging that Radia had within a short span of nine years built up a business empire worth Rs 300 crore.
Meanwhile, Radia?s public relations firm Vaishnavi said in a statement that ?vested corporate interests? were trying to harm it with a malicious and derogatory campaign since 2007.