We have no Foreign Accounts: Natwar, son

New Delhi, May 10 (UNI) Former External Affairs Minister K Natwar Singh and his son Jagat Singh today stoutly denied having any account in foreign banks and threatened criminal defamation suits against media outlets that alleged that kickbacks in the UN's oil-for-food scandal in Iraq were transferred to such accounts.

The denial came a day before the Government and Opposition sides return to spar in Parliament over a host of issues, expectedly also the Volcker report.

In separate affidavits before the Pathak Commission probing the matter, Mr Natwar Singh and Mr Jagat Singh -- MLA from Lakshmangarh in Rajasthan -- said the allegation that they had foreign bank accounts was ''malafide'' and ''politically motivated''.

While Mr Natwar Singh gave information about four bank accounts, his son disclosed that he had five bank accounts, all in India. The accounts were in various branches of the State Bank of India, ICICI, Grindlays and Standard Chartered in Delhi and Jaipur, they said.

The question of carrying out transactions with banks abroad therefore does not arise at all, they said.

Sources close to Mr Jagat Singh said that a notice had already been served on a media outlet that alleged that the Enforcement Directorate found bank documents to show that Rs 1.50 crore in kickbacks was transferred to Mr Jagat Singh's London bank account in 2001.

Earlier this month, Mr Natwar Singh had asked the Pathak Commission to speed up its probe, saying he wanted to see his name cleared at the earliest.

UNI VN MIR PC2011