Unlike the Niira Radia tapes where everyone instantly heard the lobbyist’s conversations on the day ‘Outlook’ broke the story in 2010, no one has yet heard the voices of any of the politicians, businessmen, bureaucrats or bankers who feature in the Essar Tapes, although it is four days since their existence was made public by ‘Outlook’.

Everything that we know of about the Essar Tapes so far is contained in the June 1, 2016 petition that the Delhi-based lawyer Suren Uppal sent to the Prime Minister, based on what he said his “client” Albasit Khan, the former head of security and vigilance, had given him.

The petition to Narendra Modi contained the transcripts of 20-odd conversations. Uppal has said these were only the “tip of the iceberg”. So what lies underneath the tip?

‘Outlook’ has listened to at least half-a-dozen crystal clear conversations, and also reviewed the excerpts of various conversations and call logs that go with them.

In one unpublished Essar Tape dated November 22, 2002, Rajya Sabha member Amar Singh of the Samajawadi Party is on the phone line with an unidentified individual. According to Uppal, there was an attempt to prop up and support NCP and Samajwadi Party candidates in the Gujarat elections with the express objective of disrupting the Congress’ traditional vote base.

In the chat, Singh and the unidentified caller discuss that it is Mulayam Singh’s birthday and that ‘Netaji’ was going to meet then NDA ministers Pramod Mahajan and Jaswant Singh.

Mahajan is apparently ready to contribute Rs 5 crore for the Gujarat polls and Anil Ambani, who then belonged to the undivided Reliance Industries, had already paid a woman named “Supriya” Rs 10 crore. So the unidentified caller tells Amar Singh that he should be asking for Rs 25 crore from Mahajan.

“Are you smaller than Supriya?” the unidentified caller asks Amar Singh before disconnecting.

Amar Singh has since told ‘Outlook’ that he met Ravi Ruia of Essar in London and asked him about the tapes but he denied the business house had anything to do with them.

***

In a second conversation, a man whom Uppal identifies as Essar boss Shashi Ruia calls up an employee, called Prashant. They both discuss an intelligence bureau (IB) report on an individual and its status.

The employee responds by saying that the IB official handling the report is ‘apna aadmi’ (‘he is our man’) and that ‘report manage ho jayega’ (‘the report will be managed’). The call disconnects and Ruia’s secretary connects him to another caller.

This time, Ruia asks the employee where he is and when informed that the employee is outside for lunch, Ruia promptly asks if the employee is using a landline phone or a mobile phone.

“Mobile”, the employee responds.

“Ok. When lunch is done, please call me. And please call me from a landline,” stresses Ruia.

If these tapes are authentic, Ruia appears wary of there being an additional audience to conversations on mobile phones. It does not prove that he was aware of Essar employees being tapped but could also be cautious of similar surveillance on their mobile conversations by others.

***

Amongst other conversations that Outlook was privy to, a voice that Uppal claimed was that of RIL head, Mukesh Ambani, discusses what’s going on in various cases and pending issues with an employee.

Not all of the conversations are about conspiracies but relate to company strategy for business as well except for a line where he says “Satish will handle minister”.

Essar has denied that it ever ordered any such surveillance, Basit has denied that he released any such information and Reliance has said that it is being defamed using doctored tapes and expressed concern over violation of privacy through any illegal phone taps.

Others mentioned in the taped conversations have also denied that such conversations took place after these were published in Outlook magazine following a legal ‘caution’ notice sent by Suren Uppal, Khan’s advocate.

Khan, who had initially contacted Uppal, has said that he had received the tapes from a senior official of the Mumbai crime branch and that Uppal was trying to use this opportunity to extort from the corporates. Mumbai police crime branch has denied Khan’s statement.

For in-depth, objective and more importantly balanced journalism, Click here to subscribe to Outlook Magazine