ED records lobbyist Nira Radia’s statement

NEW DELHI - The Enforcement Directorate (ED) Wednesday recorded the statement of corporate lobbyist Nira Radia, whose name figures in the scandal involving 2G spectrum allocation to mobile companies, and said she may be quizzed again.

We have recorded (her) statement. She has promised to submit some papers, which she will be submitting, ED’s Deputy Director Prabhakant told reporters here Wednesday.

We will call her as and when required, the ED official added, even as Radia’s questioning continued in the directorate’s office. She entered the office around 10.30 a.m.

The lobbyist was questioned on several issues, including the possible violation of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act and her firms’ alleged links with some of the telecom companies that were allocated the second-generation (2G) spectrum in 2008 by the then telecom minister A. Raja, sources said.

Tapes containing Radia’s conversations with Raja, some industrialists and journalists have surfaced. The tapes were submitted as part of the evidence in a public interest litigation over the 2G spectrum row in the Supreme Court, the sources said.

A report of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) tabled in parliament Nov 16 said the 2G spectrum allotment caused a notional loss of several crores of rupees to the public exchequer.

Raja quit Nov 15 as minister due to the 2G spectrum controversy.