M A I N   N E W S

Probe clears ministers in Hinduja case

London, March 4
The official inquiry into the Hinduja passport affair “absolves Home Office ministers from any impropriety in the decision to grant citizenship to NRI businessmen Srichand and Gopichand Hinduja” and “clears” Peter Mandelson, who quit from the Cabinet on the issue, “of having lied,” British media reported today.

The inquiry by Sir Anthony Hammond, former Treasury Solicitor “concludes that the citizenship applications by the Hinduja brothers were properly dealt with, even though they were issued in a third of the average time of 18 months,” the Sunday Telegraph reported, quoting the 50-page report, expected to be presented to Prime Minister Tony Blair tomorrow.

It says that in 1999, 1,125 other persons were granted passports in less than six months, 5 per cent of the total.

Sir Anthony, according to the daily, states that Mandelson “did not deliberately” mislead No 10 (Prime Minister’s Office).

“He even suggests that his denials, both to colleagues and to the Press, were honestly given in the muddle and confusion. Neither did Mandelson seek to influence Mike O’Brien, Home Office Minister, into awarding citizenship to Hinduja (Srichand Hinduja, chairman of the Hinduja group of industries),” the report said.

Commenting that Blair and Home Secretary Jack Straw “face acute embarrassment when the official inquiry will completely clear Peter Mandelson of having lied” in the Hinduja passport affair, the newspaper said Straw would be under most pressure to respond with a public apology. PTI