Reliance Industries reacts to 'illegal phone tapping' issue

Mumbai: Reliance Industries on Friday said it was shocked at reports that suggest the company and its top brass were victims of unauthorised and illegal tapping of telephones and that it reserves its right for legal action.[caption id=“attachment_2841242” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  The Reliance Industries Limited logo. Reuters [/caption] “Conversations attributed to us are false and appear to have been doctored by someone who seeks to defame us,” the spokesperson for the company said in statement. “We have, at all times, abided by the law of the land, both in letter and in spirit, in all our actions and business activities and any suggestion of any wrongdoing is plainly false. The reports are unfortunate as they make allegations without accepting any responsibility for the veracity of the contents,” the statement said. “We expect the authorities to take a serious view of these alleged violations of our right to privacy if, indeed, there has been any illegal wire tapping. We also expect the authorities to verify the truth of these allegations and take action against these malicious falsehoods,” the statement said. “We will render full co-operation to any authority in ascertaining the truth and remain confident of demonstrating that the salacious allegations are false and at all times, we have abided by the law.” The statement from Reliance Industries follows an Indian Express report suggesting that a complaint has been made to the Prime Minister’s Office by a lawyer alleging illegal wire taps by a top company on phones of former, also now-serving, ministers, corporate captains and bureaucrats between 2001 and 2006. (Disclosure: Firstpost is part of Network18 Media & Investment Limited which is owned by Reliance Industries Limited.)