CBI may book some people under Official Secrets Act in 2G spectrum scam

The CBI is contemplating booking some of the people whose premises were searched in connection with the second generation mobile telephony spectrum scam under the Official Secrets Act after it claimed to have found mirror images of certain government documents classified as "secret" from the computers seized.

Sources said that the agency has also come across mention of some such documents in the conversation tapped by the Income Tax authorities.

The authorities, including the CBI and Enforcement Directorate, were analysing the purported telephone calls made by corporate lobbyist Nira Radia and others including a former bureaucrat and a journalist during which secret documents were being discussed, they claimed.

The sources said there were several other calls made during the monitoring of telephone lines of Radia and her office Vashinavi corporate communications, searched by the CBI on December 14, which were allegedly indicative of leakage of certain sensitive, confidential and restricted documents.

An analysis of the computers show prima facie there were some such documents which had been recovered from the computers seized from various locations searched by the CBI on two occasions this month, the sources alleged.

Sources in the government said that legal opinion was being sought on whether some of the people could be booked under the OSA for procuring sensitive documents classified as "secret", "confidential" and "restricted".

The sources said while this was not a new phenomenon, efforts from government departments were lacking in preventing confidential documents being leaked to such lobbying firms.

Intelligence Bureau had been informing the government about the such leakage in the past.

The people including former disinvestment secretary Pradip Baijal, Radia, former private secretary of A Raja, RK Chandolia, would be questioned about these documents besides verifying from the ministries from where these documents were leaked, the sources said.

The CBI had carried out searches as it had registered a case on October 21, 2009 against unknown Department of telecom officials and private persons and companies for allegedly causing loss of Rs22,000 crore to the exchequer.

The figure of the loses mentioned in the agency's FIR were based on the findings of Central Vigilance Commission which had referred the case to the CBI.

The CBI has earlier searched offices of Wireless Planning Cell (WPC), the department responsible for allocating Spectrum, and the office of deputy director general (Access Services) of the telecom ministry to probe the allegations of connivance of officials with private companies in allocation of Spectrum.

It had also conducted searches in eight cities housing headquarters of various telecom firms in connection with its probe into the alleged scam.

Secret papers finding their way to various corporate houses was not a new phenomenon.

In early 2002, the CBI had filed a chargesheet against the officials of Reliance (before split of Reliance group) including V Balasubramanium, AN Sethuram and Shanker Adwal.

The CBI had started probe into the matter after Delhi police allegedly recovered four sensitive documents pertaining to internal decisions of the cabinet from a Reliance office in October 1998 while investigating the Romesh Sharma case.

The CBI had said in the court in 2002 that police had seized "photocopies of four secret documents of the government" after breaking open the locked office drawers of Balasubramaniam in 1998 which relate to "economic sanctions against India" following Pokhran-II in May 1998 and some handwritten notes attached to them.

The matter was still in the courts as the officials concerned had approached the higher courts for relief, which had not been granted so far.