PICTURE SPEAK

IN THE DOCK: Natwar (front) with son Jagat

The wheels of bureaucracy grind slowly. It has been three weeks since the Union Government announced the setting up of the Justice R.S. Pathak Inquiry Authority to probe the allegations of kickbacks in the Volcker Report against former external affairs minister K. Natwar Singh and the Congress party, and he still has no office. The former chief justice of India has to sift through documents from his residence. As soon as his appointment was announced, Pathak had said, "My job is to find the truth."

Perhaps he should begin by questioning the people who accompanied Natwar on his week-long visit to Iraq on January 17, 2001. Natwar had gone to Baghdad via Jordan as the head of the Congress delegation when the party was in the Opposition. Natwar was chief of the Congress' foreign affairs cell. He was accompanied by former Union minister P. Shiv Shankar and A.R. Antulay, besides Aniel Matherani, a little-known Congress functionary. While Natwar's son Jagat accompanied his father, a surprise addition to the delegation in Baghdad was Andaleeb Sehgal, a Delhi exporter also related to the family. Coincidentally, as india today showed in its report in the November 21, 2005 issue, this meeting was followed by a series of illegal oil allocations totalling eight million barrels under the oil-for-food programme made by Saddam Hussein's regime to Natwar and the Congress, which the Volcker Committee Report mentions.

PICTURE SPEAK

TELL ALL: Matherani makes startling disclosures against Natwar

Now there is stunning new evidence to show just how critical that visit is to the investigation. The evidence comes through a series of conversations India Today had with Matherani, currently India's ambassador to Croatia. He explains how the trip was arranged and the suspicious activities of Natwar and his family during their stay in Baghdad in January 2001. (Excerpts of the conversations follow this story.) Matherani was then the secretary of the Congress' foreign affairs cell. A former hotel employee, the curly-haired Matherani's rapid rise within the ranks of the party had raised many eyebrows. Along with Natwar he was a fixture whenever party President Sonia Gandhi met foreign dignitaries. He was considered close to Natwar, and when the Congress captured power in 2004 he was made ambassador to Croatia, one of the three partymen to be favoured in such a manner. If there was anyone in the know about what happened during that crucial period, it had to be Matherani, for he went back to Iraq in April 2001 as the Congress representative to attend Saddam's birthday celebrations.

MATHERANI REVEALS

That Natwar exploited an invitation to the Congress party by then Iraqi vice-president Taha Ramadan to send a delegation to Baghdad. That during the trip in January 2001 Natwar got his son Jagat to accompany him, and to the surprise of the other delegates, they were joined by Andaleeb Sehgal in Baghdad as an official Congress delegate. That Natwar used every opportunity on the trip to make it known to Iraqi officials that Jagat and Sehgal could be trusted to receive any favours meant for him. That Natwar used the trip to give the green signal that the oil vouchers could be handed over to Jagat and Sehgal. That the allocations meant for the Congress were cornered in Natwar's name. And even before the Volcker Report, Natwar was aware of him being named in it.

In an earlier interview to India Today, Natwar had denied that his January 2001 trip to Baghdad was used to strike business deals for him and his family. When asked whether he had favoured anyone on this trip, including Sehgal, he had replied with a capital "NEVER". But Matherani contradicts Natwar's version, stating that the former external affairs minister had used the 2001 trip to lay the groundwork for Jagat and Sehgal to secure deals under the oil-for-food programme. Providing a clear sequence to the developments, Matherani says the starting point was November 27, 2000, when then Iraqi vice-president Taha Yassin Ramadan visited India and invited a Congress delegation to visit Iraq. Matherani claims that Natwar then engineered this invitation to take his son along as "it would be a difficult journey" for someone his age. In Baghdad, without consulting the others, Natwar had Jagat and Sehgal included as part of the official delegation. Matherani confirms that when they called on Ramadan and Tariq Aziz, then deputy prime minister of Iraq, Jagat and Sehgal accompanied them and were introduced as part of the delegation.

Matherani alleges that by including them in the delegation Natwar had signalled to the Iraqis that they were his representatives and could be lent any business favours that the regime might have bestowed on him. In Matherani's words, "Moti baat yeh hai ki the green signal to give these oil vouchers was given during this visit." Matherani, however, does not reveal how and when the oil vouchers were doled out or even whether they were actually issued. Despite repeated attempts, Natwar, Jagat and Sehgal were not available for comments. While Matherani's revelations provide vital clues, they do not as yet prove Natwar's or his family's involvement in the deals.

THE CRUCIAL TRIP TO BAGHDAD Aniel Matherani, a member of the Congress delegation to Iraq, discloses how K. Natwar Singh used the January 2001 trip to lay the ground for the deals

1 Matherani says the talks on oil vouchers may have taken place when then Iraqi vice-president Taha Ramadan visited India in November 2000 along with his oil minister. 2 Natwar engineered an invite in his name, then got a clearance for a four-member Congress delegation to visit Iraq from January 17-24, 2001. 3 Natwar said he wanted Jagat to accompany him on the difficult journey to Iraq. In Amman, Sehgal joined the delegation. 4 Natwar made Jagat and Sehgal check in at the Al Rashid Hotel in Baghdad as part of the official delegation. 5 Natwar then introduced Jagat and Sehgal as the business representatives in the delegation to the Iraqi leaders. 6 Matherani says the oil vouchers were fixed on that trip. Jagat and Sehgal follow up on the deal subsequently. 7 Four million barrels of oil were allocated by the Saddam regime to Natwar and four million barrels to the Congress. 8 Matherani doesn't establish how money was transacted. Indicates Natwar cornered both his and the Congress' allocations.

KEY PLAYERS
K. NATWAR SINGH: Former external affairs minister is accused of having got illegal oil vouchers from Iraq.	ANIEL MATHERANI : A member of the Congress delegation, he says Natwar was wholly responsible.	JAGAT SINGH: Charged with using his father's connections to strike deals in league with Andaleeb Sehgal.
		ADITYA KHANNA: Saidi also named the London businessman being probed by Enforcement Directorate. Khanna admits he knows Jagat and Sehgal but denies business dealings.
ANDALEEB SEHGAL: Natwar introduced Sehgal, Jagat's cousin and business partner, to execute the deals.	JAMIL SAIDI: Former Congress leader denies his role, but claims Jagat and Sehgal were involved.
THE IRAQIS: Key Saddam Hussein aide and then Iraqi vice-president Taha Ramadan managed the allocation of oil vouchers along with deputy PM Tariq Aziz.

In the humungous report by the Volcker Committee, which was set up by the UN to probe the allegations of illegalities in the oil-for-food programme, both Natwar and the Congress figured in the long list of "non-contractual beneficiaries" of illegal oil allotments made by the Saddam regime. Natwar is said to have been allotted four million barrels of oil and the Congress party another four million. Of these, almost three million barrels were lifted-two million of the four million barrels allotted to Natwar and one million barrels from the Congress allotments. In both cases, the name of Sehgal's company, Hamdan Exports, was on the records of Iraq's State Oil Marketing Organisation as having paid the surcharge levied by the Iraqi government for lifting such oil allotments. The oil was lifted by Masefield, a Swiss oil trading company.

The Volcker Report had revealed that non-contractual beneficiaries profited by pocketing the difference between the allotment price and the open market rates. It is going to be difficult to prove it. But Matherani's interview provides a doorway-one of the many Justice Pathak would need to enter before he can discover the truth.

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