- Natwar Singh indicted for influencing and facilitating contracts fructification.
- No evidence of Congress party involvement in contracts.
- No material to show Natwar Singh derived financial and other personal benefit.
- Aditya Khanna, Andaleeb Sehgal, Sehgal Consultants and Hamdaan Exports among Indian
entities and individuals who received money or other consideration in UN's Oil for Food programme in Iraq.
- Natwar Singh's close support to Jagat Singh and Sehgal gave impression to Iraqis that former EAM was principal actor in the entire project.
- Aditya Khanna received total sum of USD 146,000 which is 5 per cent per barrel of oil.
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New Delhi, August 7
The Justice R S Pathak Inquiry Authority report into Iraq's Oil for Food scandal tabled in Parliament today indicted former Union Minister K Natwar Singh and gave a clean chit to the Congress.
As a non-contractual beneficiary with respect to Contract No M/09/54, Mr Natwar Singh was a beneficiary "in so far that the role played by him in influencing and facilitating the procurement of the Contracts had fructified," the Authority noted.
The report emphasised that "there is no material to show that Mr Natwar Singh derived any financial or other personal benefit from the contracts." The Congress party shown as a
non-contractual beneficiary with respect to Contract No M/10/57, the Authority has found "no evidence that the Congress party was involved and that it derived any benefit at all from the Contract. There is nothing to show that the Indian Congress party had anything to do with the Contracts M/09/54 and M/10/57."
Consequently, the Authority observed that the
reference to Mr Natwar Singh with respect to Contract No M/09/54 "is justified in the sense explained earlier while the reference to the Indian Congress party with respect to Contract No M/10/57 is not justified at all."
Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram who tabled the Authority report as well as the action on it said the Government has accepted the conclusions contained in the report and decided to forward it in its entirety to three agencies "to be treated as information and for such action as may appear to them warranted under the law." The agencies are the Directorate of Enforcement, The Central Board of Direct Taxes and the Central Board of Excise and Customs.
On whether any Indian entity or individual received any money or other consideration in connection with the purposed transactions in oil under the United Nations Oil for Food programme, the Justice Pathak Inquiry Authority specifically named Aditya Khanna, Andaleeb Sehgal, Sehgal Consultants and Hamdaan Exports.
The report observed "except for the fact that Mr Natwar Singh and his son Jagat Son belonged to the Indian Congress party, "there is not a shread of evidence to link the Congress party to the said transactions."
In the 87-page report the Authority said there is evidence to show that Mr Natwar Singh, who was then the Chairman of the Foreign Affairs cell of the
Congress party, and his son Jagat, a general secretary of the Youth Congress, had used their positions to introduce their relative and friend Aditya Khanna and Andaleeb Sehgal to Iraqi authorities through letters and personally to facilitate secure the contracts.The Authority headed by Mr Justice Pathak, a former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, believes that the documents with the Paul Volcker inquiry were authentic and reliable. The Volcker
Committee had named Mr Natwar Singh and the Congress party as non-contractual beneficiaries in the oil deals.
"The documents with the Volcker Committee were genuine and full reliance could be placed on them by the Inquiry Authority," the report said.
The Authority contended that detailed analysis of documents from various sources including the Volcker committee, the Governments of Iran and Jordan, the External Affairs ministry and the affidavits of various individuals "give rise to the finding that Mr Natwar Singh was a
beneficiary in so far that the role played him in influencing and facilitating the procurement of the contract had fructified."
The tabling of the Justice Pathak Inquiry Authority report was not without its attendant drama. Both the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha had to be adjourned briefly as the Opposition members held Prime Minister Manmohan Singh responsible for the leak and demanded an apology from him.
