Dayal panel implicates Natwar’s son

NEW DELHI: The Virendra Dayal Committee has confirmed that former external affairs minister K Natwar Singh’s son Jagat and his friend, Hamdan Exports director Andaleeb Sehgal, profited from the oil-for-food scandal in Iraq.

The committee was appointed by the Centre to collect all documents relevant to the charges made against Indian entities in the Paul Volcker report. Its findings have been handed over to the Enforcement Directorate, which is also investigating Volcker’s allegations against Natwar Singh, the Congress, and a few Indian companies.

The ED is expected to complete its investigation by the end of this month.

In October 2005, a United Nations-appointed committee headed by former US Federal Reserve chief Volcker came out with a report that charged more than 2,400 organisations around the world with paying kickbacks to Saddam Hussein’s regime in Iraq. The report mentioned Natwar Singh and the Congress as non-contractual beneficiaries.

According to the evidence obtained by the Dayal Committee, Natwar Singh introduced Jagat and Sehgal to the then Iraqi oil minister and solicited business for them.

The mass of documents collected by the Dayal Committee, running into 1,500 pages, will also be provided to the Justice RS Pathak Inquiry Authority, which was constituted last November to probe the references in the Volcker report.

Dayal completed his task of obtaining the documents early this month. The documents have been obtained from the UN, Iraq and Jordan.

A source said Jagat Singh received around Rs1.5 crore of the total Rs8 crore paid in kickbacks by energy trading company Masefield AG. The remaining Rs6.5 crore was divided among other beneficiaries. The money was deposited in a London bank account in 2001. The ED has reportedly obtained crucial bank documents on the transactions.

Natwar Singh declined to comment. “Talk to my lawyer,” he said. But his lawyer did not answer calls to his mobile phone.