The "Tata Tapes"
The tapes that Ritu Sarin accessed contained conversations between Nusli Wadia and many political and industrial heavyweights, and showed that the Tatas were trying to get the central government to intervene in their problems with the Assam Government. Mahanta had met the Indian Prime Minister I K Gujral and had complained to him about the Union Home Secretary K Padmanabhaiah's interference in the matter. The tapes also seemed to suggest that the Tatas knew Gogoi's whereabouts (he had stayed at the company guest house before moving to a hotel and then a nursing home) and had lied to the Assam government about not knowing his location. But that was denied by the group as also Ram Jethmalani.
The identity of the persons involved in tapping Wadia's telephones remained a mystery. The Central government denied it had anything to do with it - the Intelligence Bureau works under the Home Secretary - Padmanabhaiah. He demanded a probe into the illegal phone tapping and said in a telephonic interview to the Indian Express-
| “ | "Prima-facie, I can say that we have no hand in the tapping. The Intelligence Bureau has not done it. The IB can not tap a telephone unless I permit. Therefore, the issue to be investigated is who is tapping the telephones of these private persons and why somebody is infringing on their privacy." | ” |
And the Indian government ordered a probe into the matter.
Read more about this topic: Tata Tapes Controversy
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