Author: Pradeep Thakur
Publication: The Times of India
Date: March 27, 2006
The Enforcement Directorate (ED), investigating
the money trail in the 'oil-for-food' scam, has finally tracked a sum of Rs
8 crore transferred from London-based NRI businessman Aditya Khanna's bank
account to his own NRI account in a Delhi bank.
The amount was later withdrawn from this account
to be allegedly distributed among Indian beneficiaries of the scam.
Top ED sources identified the money as proceeds
from the oil-for-food transaction which was remitted to India after paying
commission to Masefield, the Swiss firm which lifted oil from the quota which,
according to the Volcker report, had been allotted to former external affairs
minister Natwar Singh.
ED and Income-Tax department are jointly investigating
the bank accounts of Aditya Khanna and his brothers - Arvind Khanna, a Congress
MLA from Sangrur in Punjab, and Navin Khanna.
All three brothers have separate bank accounts
in the branch in question, on Parliament Street, of Standard Chartered Bank.
The Khannas are relatives of Natwar Singh and represent a branch of the Phulkyan
clan, which includes Punjab CM Captain Amarinder Singh.
Sources said that apart from the Rs 8-crore
oil money transferred to Aditya Khanna's NRI account in Delhi, officials have
found details of huge remittances made from London to accounts of Arvind and
Navin Khanna in the past few years.
When contacted, the Khannas denied their involvement
in the scam, which came into the open after Paul Volcker, former chairman
of the US Federal Reserve who led a UN probe into Saddam Hussain's scam, submitted
his report.
The report triggered a political storm which
resulted in the ouster of Natwar Singh from the external affairs ministry
last year.
"We don't know of any oil money. No such
money was ever transferred into Aditya's account either in India or abroad,"
said a family source. ED sources, however, maintained that Aditya Khanna was
one of the key protagonists who refused to cooperate with the probe.
ED had to approach the ministry of external
affairs to cancel the NRI businessman's passport when he refused to explain
his transactions.
The ED has asked the Khannas to produce the
Foreign Inward Remittances Certificate (FIRC) against each remittance into
accounts in Standard Chartered Bank.
