New Delhi: For the first time since the Iraq oil scam surfaced 11 months ago, former external affairs minister K Natwar Singh has been directly accused by the Enforcement Directorate (ED).
The ED accused Natwar of ‘jointly and severally’ acquiring foreign exchange totaling $8.9 lakh in contravention of the FEMA regulations along with his son Jagat and three others.
An 18-page show cause notice issued by the ED on Singh and others says that they had ‘jointly and severally’ acquired foreign exchange totaling $8,98,027.79 in respect of two oil contracts with Iraqi Government's State Oil Marketing Organisation (SOMO) in 2001.
Of this, they had transferred $7,48,550 to an account in Jordan National Bank, Jordan, in fulfillment of the pre-condition by SOMO for allocation of oil.
According to the notice, Singh and others transferred $1,46,247.23 being the commission amount in respect of two contracts in Barclays bank in Jersey, Channel Islands, belonging to Indrus Trading Company owned by Andaleeb Sehgal, a friend of Jagat.
The ED's notice dated September two, 2006, to which the recipients are required to respond within 30 days, comes despite the Pathak authority saying in its report that "there is no material evidence to show that Natwar Singh derived any financial or other personal benefits from the contracts."
Natwar Singh reacted to the show cause notices by stating that this was an attempt by the ED to defame and him and he would give a befitting reply to this through his lawyers.
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