Handing the Congress party a clean chit in the Iraqi oil-for-food scandal, the Justice R S Pathak inquiry panel today indicted former External Affairs Minister K Natwar Singh and his MLA son Jagat for “misusing” their position to help persons close to them bag Iraqi oil contracts which were sold in the international market for commissions.

In his report, submitted to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh this evening, Pathak said no money was traced to the father-son duo but their kin Aditya Khanna and Jagat’s friend, Andaleeb Sehgal, received commissions from foreign companies in exchange for oil coupons given by the Saddam Hussein regime in 2001.

Justice Pathak was appointed the inquiry authority in November last year to probe into allegations that Singh and the Congress party were non-contractual beneficiaries of kickbacks resulting from sale of oil coupons gifted by the Iraqi government. The allegations were contained in the report of the Volcker Committee to the UN.

The Pathak report, which went through reports of the Enforcement Directorate and the immigration department on the travels of Singhs, Andaleeb and Khanna, concluded:

• Natwar Singh and Jagat “misused” their position

• Andaleeb and Khanna received money in two transactions in two banks, one based in the UK

• Natwar wrote three letters to the Iraqi “oil man” introducing Andaleeb

• Andaleeb and Khanna travelled to UK and places in the Middle East

• No money transaction showed up in the Congress bank account

Reacting to the findings of the report, the BJP questioned the probe panel’s decision to exonerate Congress, wondering as to how the ruling party could be given a clean chit in a matter which indicted one of its leaders. BJP spokesman Ravi Shankar Prasad asked, “On what basis was a carte-blanche given that Congress had no role to play?”

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