Pathak report: Stranger than fiction

The Pathak Commission's reconstruction of the story of how contracts M/09/54 and M/10/57 in which Natwar Singh and the Congress have been listed as non-contractual beneficiaries in the oil-for-food programme in Iraq reads like a paperback thriller.

It tells the story of the friendship of Andaleeb Sehgal and Aditya Khanna, both businessmen, who along with Jagat Singh, decide to leverage K Natwar Singh's position in the Congress to secure oil contracts from Iraq, only to resell them to foreign firms at a premium.

Throughout the report, Justice Pathak emphasises that Natwar Singh used his position in the Congress to secure personal favours. However, the report also says there is no evidence of money having reached Natwar Singh or his family.

The report says how a string of offshore accounts received money that Hamdaan Exports got as fees for securing three contracts of oil which were subsequently lifted by Masefield AG, a UK-based company.

However, while Masefield bought the oil "" as only UN-registered companies were allowed to purchase oil from sanctions-hit Iraq "" it was finally lifted by a firm called Vitol which bought it from Masefield for a 46 cent per barrel premium, revealing the seamy underbelly of the oil-for-food programme for Iraq under which Iraq charged "surcharges" for allotting oil quotas to friendly regimes which resold these allotments in the market at a premium.

The commission observes: "It was apparent that Shri Natwar Singh tried to project himself as speaking for the Congress while in fact he was addressing a personal request to the Iraqi government."

The report describes how Sehgal, Khanna and Jagat Singh leveraged Natwar Singh's position to secure the contracts, the fees of which were salted away in several bank accounts.

Motilal Vora, treasurer of the party, has deposed that the Congress party got none of the money. However, while the enquiry committee absolves the Congress of any wrongdoing, sceptics are asking how this is possible and are wondering if this is a response to the veiled threats that Natwar Singh has been sending out.