Cong not involved in oil-for-food scam: Pathak

New Delhi, Aug 7: The Justice R S Pathak Inquiry Authority has given a clean chit to the Congress in the Iraqi oil-for-food scam and the government accepted the finding in its Action Taken Report (ATR) tabled in Parliament today.

''The Inquiry Authority has absolutely no evidence to link the Congress Party to the transactions discussed in this Report and except for the fact that (former External Affairs Minister) Shri K Natwar Singh and (his son) Shri K Jagat Singh belonged to the Indian Congress Party there is not a shred of evidence to link the Congress Party to the said transactions,'' the Authority said in its 87-page report.

The report, however, said Mr Natwar Singh, mentioned as a non-contractual beneficiary, ''was a beneficiary in so far that the role played by him in influencing and facilitating the procurement of the contracts had fructified.''.

The ATR, which was tabled along with the report by Finance Minister P Chidambaram in the Lok Sabha and MoS Finance Pawan Kumar Bansal in the Rajya Sabha, said, ''the government have examined the report and have accepted the conclusions contained in the report.''

Both the Houses witnessed two adjournments each in the pre-lunch sitting, with the opposition stalling the proceedings over the alleged leak of the authority's report to a television channel as soon as it was submitted to Dr Singh last week. The report and the ATR were tabled amid pandemonium in the two Houses as the agitated opposition MPs kept raising shouting.

The ATR, quoting the authority's report, said, ''The reference to Shri Natwar Singh 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.'' The Authority had been set up in the wake of the Volcker committee report which had named the Congress, Mr Natwar Singh and a number of other individuals and entities from India as non-contractual beneficiaries of the UN oil-for-food scheme for the now dethroned Saddam Hussein regime in Iraq.

The Authority was asked to inquire into the two contracts and give its opinion on the authenticity and reliability of the sources, materials and documents, and whether, in its opinion, the purported transactions in oil are genuine or not.

It had also been asked to give its opinion whether the references to Indian entities and individuals pertaining to the two contracts ''are justified or not.'' Under contract No. M/09/54 the total surcharges paid by Hamdaan Exports Ltd, owned by Andaleep Sehgal who is a relative of Mr Natwar Singh, were 498,518 dollars. For the contract No. M/10/57, an amount of 250,032 dollars was paid as surcharges. ''Therefore, the total amount paid as surcharges after going through the various documents is a sum of 748,550 dollars,'' the report said.

The report further said for their part, ''Shri Aditya Khanna (an associate of Mr Sehgal) and Shri Andaleeb Sehgal received a total sum of 146,000 which amounts to about 5 per cent per barrel of oil.'' ''The entire amount was received in the bank account of INDRUS Trading Company Ltd located in Jersey, Channel Islands. This was to be distributed in the ratio of four to one between Shri Andaleeb Sehgal and Shri Aditya Khanna.'' Out of 146,000 dollars, an amount totalling 68,293 dollars was received in the accounts of Hamdaan Exports and Sehgal Consultants in India. For his share, Mr Aditya Khanna received 32,558 dollars which he retained in the accounts of INDRUS, the report said.

UNI

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