The government on Wednesday ended all speculation about the resignation of CVC P.J. Thomas with a statement in the Supreme Court that he only has decided to keep away from supervising the investigation in the 2G spectrum scam case while the top court ordered depositing of the originals of the “Radia tapes” with it for safe-keeping.
Solicitor-General Gopal Subramaniam made a statement to this effect before a bench of Justices G.S. Singhvi and A.K. Ganguly at the very beginning of Wednesday’s hearing and the top court without making any comment on Mr Thomas’ decision merely recorded the government statement in a brief order.
“The solicitor-general submitted that he has instruction to make a statement that the present chief vigilance commissioner (CVC) has volunteered to recuse from the supervision of investigation of the case registered by the CBI on October 21, 2009,” the bench in its order recorded.
The top court also directed the director-general (investigations) income tax to deposit by Thursday the originals of the “Niira Radia tapes” with it for safe “preservation” after apprehension expressed by petitioner — CPIL’s — lawyer Prashant Bhushan that the tapes, which were crucial evidence could be destroyed. The order was recorded after the solicitor-general made a statement to this effect stating that the government had no objection to this arrangement.
“Keeping in view the nature of the case, we direct the D-G (investigations), income tax that the original conversation of Niira Radia and others recorded on harddrive or in the form of tapes, compact discs or any other electronic device along with all telephonic call records shall be put in a sealed cover by tomorrow after preparing the number of copies required by the department of I-T and the CBI,” the order said.
The top court secretary-general was directed that the tapes be kept under “lock and seal” and make them available to the court when required in connection with the case.