Natwar's plea seeking all OFFP documents dismissed

New Delhi, Mar 28 (UNI) The Delhi High Court today dismissed the plea of former External Affairs Minister K Natwar Singh and his son Jagat seeking all the documents available with the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in the Iraq Oil-For-Food scam.

Vacating the stay on the proceedings initiated by the Enforcement Directorate against the two, the court has directed them to appear before the ED on April 24.

While dismissing the petition, a Division Bench comprising Justices T S Thakur and Kailash Gambhir said the accused was entitled to only those documents on which the prosecuting agency had relied upon to make the case against him.

Earlier, a single Bench of Justice B D Ahmed had dismissed the petition of Mr Singh and his son, who sought the court's intervention to direct the ED to supply all the the documents, whether relied upon or not during the probe.

Mr Arvind Nigam, counsel for Natwar Singh, had contended before the court that it is a right of an accused to get copies of all the documents available with the prosecuting agency, on which they have formed the case.

However, Additional Solicitor General P P Malhotra appearing for the ED told the court that the prosecution could only supply those documents to the accused on which they have used in framing the case.

The agency was not obliged to supply other documents, he added.

UNI SNG GT AS1929