Friday, August 4 2006 11:15 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: The Justice Pathak Inquiry Authority yesterday (Aug 3, 2006) indicted former External Affairs Minister K Natwar Singh and his MLA son Jagat Singh for procurement of contracts in the UN oil-for-food programme in Iraq during Saddam Hussain's regime but no no money has been traced to them.

The copy of the 110-page report, including 22 pages of annexures, was handed over today to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh by Justice R S Pathak, who headed the one-man inquiry authority.

The authority is believed to have exonerated the Congress of all charges of being a non-contractual beneficiary in the scam in 2001.

Andaleeb Sehgal, a friend of Jagat Singh, and Aditya Khanna, a relative of Natwar Singh, are understood to have received financial payoffs in the deal by getting oil coupons based on the letters of recommendation given by Natwar Singh.

The Authority has found that Natwar and his son had misused their position in helping Sehgal and Khanna bag three oil contracts from the UN sanctioned Saddam regime. Sehgal and Khanna, in turn, passed the contracts on to Swiss oil company Masefield AG which drew the oil and paid them a commission, the report says.

On a cut of five cents a barrel, Sehgal and Khanna received a total commission of USD 1,46,000, which they divided between themselves in a ratio of 4:1, according to the Authority's report.

Former Indian Ambassador to Croatia and Congress leader Aniel Matherani, who was part of a four-member delegation led by Natwar to Baghdad in January, 2001, was also exonerated of any wrong doing.