‘Raja diaries’ not much of evidence

The CBI team handling the 2G spectrum investigation — along with almost 6,000 taped conversations of Niira Radia — now has the added burden of decoding what are being described as the “Raja diaries”.

Officials confirmed that during the search at the former telecom minister’s residence in New Delhi earlier this week,a total of six diaries were recovered and taken to the CBI headquarters for inspection. While three of these are being described as “proper” diaries,the other three are probably notebooks which the ex-minister has filled with “cryptic jottings”. However,officials said the diaries mostly date back to the period when A Raja was the environment minister in the UPA government. CBI officers said the diaries have no “immediate” evidential value since it was not yet clear to them if the figures scribbled against several dates in the diaries relate to payments,shares purchased or something else.

The speculation that the figures were ‘proof” of the ex-minister having made hawala payments to prominent persons,sources said,was as yet unfounded since the diaries and other documents recovered have not even been scrutinised or the handwriting sent for forensic examination. It is a different matter that,at a later stage in the probe,the jottings in the diaries match with other evidence or testimonies collected by the agency,the sources said.

Several telephone numbers have also been scribbled along with figures in the diaries and a verification of who they belonged to would be carried out shortly as the scope of the CBI’s probe in the 2G spectrum scam gets even wider.