Suren Uppal, the Supreme Court lawyer who brought the Essar tapes to light has approached the Ministry of Home Affairs after he claimed of being threatened reports India Today.
Uppal has sought the ministry’s intervention to transfer the possession of over 25 hours of audio recordings to an investigation agency. The move has come days after Albasit Khan, who Uppal claims is the whistleblower, denied to have ever approached Uppal.
Uppal submitted the recordings of powerful names in the country, including industrialists, government officials, ministers and journalists, to the Prime Minister’s Office on 1 June, The Indian Express reported on 17 June.
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Although the India Today report claims that Uppal wants the tapes to be taken to an investigation agency, in an interview with The Wire, he mentioned that he will file a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) in the Supreme Court.
SC lawyer Prashant Bhushan had filed a PIL last year and has sought an FIR to be filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) after the recent revelations, reports The Indian Express.
Bhushan’s organisation, Center for Public Interest Litigation (CPIL), had filed a PIL in the case when The Indian Express had first reported on the matter in February 2015.
Bhushan has now said that he will include the latest Essar tapes and emails in his earlier PIL and bring it to the apex court’s notice.
The Essar tapes have revealed a possible web of wrongdoings by the people who are heard in the tapes. The PMO directed the case to the Home Ministry, seeking a report on it.
However, whistleblower Albasit Khan first denied being in touch with Uppal and later denied Essar’s involvement in the tapping itself. Khan has alleged that deceased police officer Vijay Salaskar was the one who provided the recordings to him, according to Mumbai Mirror.
While Uppal claims that Essar CEO Prashant Ruia had asked Khan to tap conversations between 2001 and 2006. Khan suggests that the recording was done by the Mumbai police. Dattatray Padsalgikarhas, Mumbai Police Commissioner has, however, denied having carried out any such tapping, according to India Today.
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