Author: PTI
Publication: The Hindu
Date: August 3, 2006
URL: http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/holnus/000200608032001.htm
The Justice Pathak Inquiry Authority today
indicted former External Affairs Minister K Natwar Singh and his MLA son Jagat
Singh for procurement of contracts in the UN oil-for-food programme in Iraq
during Saddam Hussain's regime but no money has been traced to them.
The copy of the 110-page report, including
22 pages of annexures, was handed over today to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh
by Justice R S Pathak, who headed the one-man inquiry authority.
The authority is believed to have exonerated
the Congress of all charges of being a non-contractual beneficiary in the
scam in 2001.
Andaleeb Sehgal, a friend of Jagat Singh,
and Aditya Khanna, a relative of Natwar Singh, are understood to have received
financial payoffs in the deal by getting oil coupons based on the letters
of recommendation given by Natwar Singh.
The Authority has found that Natwar and his
son had misused their position in helping Sehgal and Khanna bag three oil
contracts from the UN sanctioned Saddam regime.
Sehgal and Khanna, in turn, passed the contracts
on to Swiss oil company Masefield AG which drew the oil and paid them a commission,
the report says.
On a cut of five cents a barrel, Sehgal and
Khanna received a total commission of USD 1,46,000, which they divided between
themselves in a ratio of 4:1, according to the Authority's report.
Former Indian Ambassador to Croatia and Congress
leader Aniel Matherani, who was part of a four-member delegation led by Natwar
to Baghdad in January, 2001, was also exonerated of any wrong doing.
