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Pathak
panel finds Natwar, Jagat guilty
New
Delhi: The Justice Pathak Inquiry Authority probing the
Oil-for-Food scam, has indicted former External Affairs Minister
Natwar Singh and his son Jagat Singh for misusing their powers,
but has not found evidence of any money trail linking them.
However, in its report submitted to Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan
Singh here today, the Pathak panel gave a clean chit to the
Congress party. According to sources, the report says that
Natwar Singh had written three letters to the former Iraqi
Oil Minister in which he introduced Jagat's friend Andaleeb
Sehgal to the minister. Meanwhile, Natwar Singh refused to
say anything on the matter. His advocate said that the former
minister would talk only after reading the report. The controversy
over Oil-for-food payoff erupted in October last year, when
a former UN diplomat Paul Volcker wrote in his report that
politicians in several countries, including Natwar Singh,
were given oil vouchers that could be sold for a commission
to help the former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein in his attempts
to get sanctions lifted. Following this, Natwar resigned from
the ministry on November 7. Later, the Union Cabinet appointed
a retired Supreme Court Justice RS Pathak for enquiry into
the matter.
The
Congress-led government had, since the report became public,
been battling furious protests by Opposition parties, which
had accused it of harbouring corrupt politicians. Natwar,
who was the first political casualty of the explosive report,
had however, termed the allegations as "outrageous". The oil-for-food
program, which began in 1996 and ended in 2003, aimed to ease
the impact on ordinary Iraqis of U.N. sanctions, imposed when
Iraqi troops invaded Kuwait in 1990. Under the scheme, Iraq
was allowed to sell oil to buy food, medicine and many other
goods. The UN report said that some 2,200 companies made illicit
payments totalling 1.8 billion dollars to Saddam's government
under the programme.
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