'Natwar implicated Cong through his conduct'

New Delhi, Aug 7: The Justice R S Pathak Inquiry Authority, which went into the oil-for-food scam, has virtually held former External Affairs Minister K Natwar Singh and his son, Jagat Singh, responsible for implicating the Congress party into the scandal through their ''conduct'' and the use of certain documents.

''Apparently, it (the Congress) has been shown (in the Volcker committee report) as a non-contractual beneficiary because that was the impression created in the minds of the Iraqi authorities by reason of the conduct of Shri Natwar Singh and Shri Jagat Singh and the documents which they employed including the letters written by Shri Natwar Singh to the Iraqi Oil Minister,'' Justice Pathak said in his report.

Giving a clean chit to the Congress in the 87-page report tabled in Parliament today along with a brief three-page Action Taken Report (ATR) of the Finance Ministry, the former Chief Justice of India said ''there is nothing to show that the Indian Congress Party had anything to do with the (two oil) contracts'' involving a total commission of 146,000 dollars.

Indicting Mr Natwar Singh for helping the associates of his son get the oil contracts, the Authority, however, said there was ''no material'' to show that the former Minister ''derived any financial or other personal benefit'' from the contracts.

Mr Natwar Singh had written two letters in 2001 to the then Iraqi Oil Minister, Dr Amer Rasheed, on the official letterhead of the All India Congress Committee (AICC). The first letter on January 30 was handed over through Mr Andaleeb Sehgal, cousin of Mr Jagat Singh, and the second on April 26 through Mr Jagat Singh.

According to the report, these letters showed that Mr Natwar Singh had met the Iraqi Oil Minister on January 22, 2001 along with Mr Sehgal and ''demonstrates'' that he utilised his presence in Iraq not merely for the purpose of representing the Congress Party in a goodwill mission ''but also took the opportunity of lending his assistance in the procurement of the oil allocation to Shri Andaleeb Sehgal who accompanied him on the visit to the Oil Minister.'' Further, Mr Natwar Singh had, along with his second letter to the Iraqi Oil Minister, attached an extract from ''Foreign Policy Resolution Concerning the Middle East'' and talked of the party's plenary session held at Bangalore in March 2001 which had called for termination of sanctions against Iraq.

''It is clear that this was an attempt to show to the officials of Iraq that the policies of the Indian Congress were 'Iraqi Friendly' and Shri Natwar Singh and Shri Jagat Singh enjoyed a significant standing in an important political party,'' the report said.

UNI

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