Top Government sources told The Indian Express that while Justice Pathak has indicted Natwar Singh and Jagat for misusing their positions towards securing oil contracts, the Enforcement Directorate has succeeded in uncovering a complex trans-continental money trail.

This, sources said, leads to Jagat Singh as one of the alleged beneficiaries of the contract for two million barrels of Iraqi oil. Sources said the Mercedes was seized by ED since there is evidence that the car was purchased from the money allegedly received by Jagat from the very same 2001 contract.

The car is lying at an undisclosed destination and sources said the ED will initiate confiscation proceedings after the adjudication in the case is over.

The submission of the Pathak report to the Prime Minister is, in fact, the first of a series of actions that will unfold in the next few days.

The ED is set to send detailed show-cause notices, as first reported by The Indian Express, under the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) to Natwar Singh, Jagat Singh, Andaleeb Sehgal, his partner Vikas Dhar and NRI businessman Aditya Khanna.

It is understood that while the ED probe was completed a while ago, the Directorate was waiting for Justice Pathak to submit his findings and then send the notices after an unprecedented international probe for which ED officials visited New York, Jordan, Iraq and London.

Besides the ED, officials of the Pathak panel also visited New York to verify the documents and contracts submitted to them.

Following its probe, the ED submitted some 4,000 pages of evidence on the nature of Iraqi contracts, banking transactions, purchase vouchers and ownership papers of several front companies like Coburg and Indrus located in tax havens such as the Channel Islands.

The ED also submitted copies of testimonies of all persons called to its headquarters for questioning to the Pathak panel.

The documents include the evidence given to ED by the Serious Fraud Office in London which is also believed to indicate Jagat Singh’s alleged involvement in the oil-for-food scandal.

Once the show-cause notices have been issued, the ED is likely to hand over its evidence to the investigations wing of the Income Tax as well as the Home Ministry, for cases to be initiated under the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA). The alleged I-T and FCRA violations traced by the ED of those who will get show-cause notices are said to run into several crores.