By TIOL News Service

NEW DELHI, OCT 20, 2013: EVEN as the UPA Government has been dilly-dallying on the issue of lobbying by the Walmart, the Supreme Court of India has come down heavily on the officials and corporate houses on the basis of Niira Radia's tapes. It has ordered CBI investigation into the possible criminality aspect involved in many big-ticket corporate deals involving many mega industrial houses.

Having studied the transcript of tapes prepared out of intercepted telephone calls, the SC Bench dubbed as many as eight mega deals involving corporate heavyweights and government officials as "prima facie indicative of deep rooted malaise in the system of which advantage has been taken by private enterprises in connivance with the Government officers and others."

A special team constituted by the Apex Court in Februrary to scan the Niira Radia tapes had shortlisted 17 issues involving possible criminality. Out of 17, the SC has ordered fresh proble in eight deals, which are as follows:

++ Sale of low-floor buses by Tata Motors to TN Government under JNNURM Scheme;

++ Allotment of coal blocks to Anil Ambani's Sasan Power Project;

++ Manipulation of subscribers' base by Reliance Communication and submission of such data in BSE and TRAI;

++ Appointment of Pradip Baijal as Head of Pipeline Advisory Committee

++ Hammering of Unitech stocks

++ Influence of middlemen and pay offs in the aviation sector;

++ Favours showered by DG, Hydrocarbon to RIL.

The Bench has set the deadline of 60 days for the CBI to wrap up investigations and furnish its findings.