Who Nira Radia and Pradeep Baijal are

New Delhi: Nira Radia has been under the scanner for the last few weeks following the leak of her phone conversations with journalists, industrialists and bureaucrats. The phone conversations revealed that Radia was involved in lobbying for ensuring ministerial berths for certain individuals, changes in telecom and other government policies.

With the 2G spectrum scam having already forced the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance Government on the back foot, the leak of Radia tapes showed that not only ministers and bureaucrats but even some industrialists were involved in trying to influence telecom policies.

The Central Bureau of Investigation on Wednesday carried out searches at the premises of Radia and former Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) chairman Pradeep Baijal in connection with the alleged 2G spectrum scam.

But who are Nira Radia and Pradeep Baijal:

Nira Radia:

Nira Radia is a public relations consultant and corporate lobbyist. She heads four PR companies: Vaishnavi Corporate Communications, Neosis Strategic Consulting Services, Vitcom Consulting and Neucom Consulting.

The tapping of Radia's phones was authorised by the Government in 2008 after the the Finance Ministry in 2007 received a complaint against her with the complainant suspecting that she could have connections with foreign intelligence agencies.

The complainant also raised questions over Radia building an empire worth Rs 300 crore over nine years and alleged that the corporate lobbyist was indulging in anti-national activities.

Pradeep Baijal:

Pradeep Baijal holds a BE (Honours) in Mechanical Engineering from IIT (Roorkee) and is an IAS officer of 1966 batch of Madhya Pradesh cadre. He was the disinvestment secretary between 1999 and 2003. He was made the chairman of TRAI in 2004 and retired in 2008. After retiring from TRAI, Baijal joined Radia's firm Vaishnavi Communications in 2009. He also defended 2G spectrum pricing.

He partnered Radia to form Noesis Consultants in 2007 and is presently the Chairman of Noesis Consultants. He has also been on the board of many companies.