2G case: Govt deposits Radia tapes with SC

As demanded by the Supreme Court, the government today placed before the Supreme Court in sealed cover recorded tapes containing the conversations between corporate lobbyist Niira Radia and others relating to the 2G spectrum allocation case.

While placing the recorded conversation before the bench comprising justices G S Singhvi and A K Ganguly, solicitor general Gopal Subramanium said that it is a hard disc drive directly downloaded from the server, which contains the conversations.

The Supreme Court had directed the union government to deposit with the registry the original recordings of conversations of corporate lobbyist Niira Radia in connection with the 2G spectrum scandal.

''We direct that the original records and tapes / CDs be submitted in a sealed cover after preparing the copies. It will be kept in the lockers of the Supreme Court registry and if required, it will be considered for its use,'' the court had said on Wednesday.

However, advocate Prashant Bhushan appearing for the NGO Centre for Public Interest Litigation (CPIL) said though CBI maintains that there were 5,800 conversations, it has prepared the transcript of only 3,000 such conversations.

Meanwhile, the journalist who unearthed the scam surrounding the allocation of 2G spectrum, J Gopikrishnan, has dismissed Tata Group chairman Ratan Tata's stand that recordings of his conversations with lobbyist Niira Radia were a impingement of his privacy.