Albasit Khan
Head of security and vigilance at Essar in Mumbai; carried out phone-tapping and surveillance; claims was unaware of targets, merely passed on recordings. Was forced to resign in 2011, which, he claims, prompted him to keep some of the recordings as insurance for himself and his family. Reported to have gone missing since April this year.
Shishir Agarwal
Khan reported to this Essar executive who provided him with the equipment and money for the phone taps. Agarwal called on Khan in 2015 and indicated that he too had been forced to leave the company; wanted Khan to share the recordings so as to avenge their sacking. Agarwal also ’inadvertently’ left some floppy discs he was carrying behind.
Advertisement
Suren Uppal
Noida-based Supreme Court lawyer contacted by Khan in January 2016 after he listened to some of the recordings following Agarwal’s visit to his house. Khan handed over the recordings to the lawyer for safekeeping and possible legal action “in national interest”. Uppal was a junior lawyer with senior lawyers K. Parasaran and P. Chidambaram.
Ravikant and Prashant Ruia
All the data recorded from the phone-tapping was transferred in the form of audio tapes to the uncle-nephew duo in person by Khan. Uppal was told by Khan that a committee, which included Manish Kedia, Shyam Bargodia, Vivek Chaudary, Madan Mundra, S.M. Lodha and Ashish Rajgaria, had screened the tapes for authenticity.
