RADIA GATE - BIO II

Quite like all those different accents, Niira’s background remains a guarded mystery and the answers vary depending on who you ask for nuggets of information about her past. It has actually  been carefully crafted that way. For all practical purposes, her life begins in the “early 1990s” when she says she made India her base. Considering that she is about 50 years old now, that means the first 30-odd years of her life are a blank—and it doesn’t help that she has added an extra “i” to her first name (and even “looks different”, according to a senior aviation ministry official who has interacted with her in the past).

On Record Radia at the Enforcement Directorate office in New Delhi on November 24

Well, what we do know is that she began life as a very Punjabi Nira Sharma. Her father was an agent for aviation equipment, and shifted the Sharma family from Kenya to London in the 1970s (he passed away in 2002-03). In England, Niira picked up an education and a British passport (and later she got a Person of Indian Origin status too). It’s learnt that she went to the upmarket Haberdashers’ Aske’s school for girls in northern London, rounding off her education at the University of Warwick, from where she got a bachelor’s degree.

Soon after, Niira married London-based financier Janak Radia, a Gujarati. It was after a divorce that Niira decided to move to India, along with her three children, all sons. One of them, Karan, made it to the news in 2003 when the then 18-year-old was kidnapped by Niira’s “business partner” Dheeraj Singh, grandson of the late former Haryana CM, Rao Birender Singh. Dheeraj Singh, it was claimed in the fir, was a partner in Niira’s PR agency. This was one clear example of Niira’s rising clout: despite all his political connections, it is learnt that Dheeraj Singh did end up spending some time in jail.
Not much is known about Niira’s siblings—two sisters and a brother—though one of them, Karuna Menon, is involved with Niira’s work in India. Karuna was, in 2001, co-promoter of Crown Express, Niira’s first attempt to launch an airline which ended in failure. Karuna and two other people—Iqbal and Saira Menon—are also listed under the same UK address as directors of dissolved companies. More recently, Karuna has been identified as the president of Sudesh Foundation, whose trustee is “Nira Radia”. Funded by Vaishnavi Communications, Sudesh Foundation’s offices are located in Delhi’s South Extension as well as Barakhamba Road (1st Floor, Gopaldas Tower, which also houses the Tata Teleservices offices. On the fifth floor are Reliance’s offices). The trust is mainly charitable and has aligned with a ‘Sri Rama Vitthala Trust’ to start an Ayurvedic College in Karnataka. They accept donations. They are also involved with childcare, animal care, youth and disaster relief work. And going by news reports, Karuna is currently in Delhi, lending help to her sister.