``After the Kargil conflict, I sent a secret instruction to stop importing immediately and then we withheld payment of this deal,'' Hegde told Indian talks programme of the CNBC Asia.

The payment was withheld for sugar imported from Pakistan and allegedly produced in factories owned by family members of the ousted prime minister Nawaz Sharif, Television Eighteen India Ltd, said in a release here.

Hegde said the onion crisis last year was the result of a conspiracy hatched by the Congress.

``It was a conspiracy hatched by the Congress ..., because National Agricultural Cooperative Federation was headed by a Congressman,'' he said.