The government on Monday presented the action taken report on the findings of Justice R S Pathak on the allegations made in the Volcker report that Natwar Singh, former external affairs minister, and his son Jagat Singh had benefitted from the oil for food programme during the regime of former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein.
P Chidambaram, union finance minister, tabled the report on the table of the Lok Sabha amidst shouting from the Bhartiya Janata Party members.
"The government have decided to forward the report in its entirety to the following authorities to be treated as information and for such action as may appear to them warranted under law. The directorate of Enforcement, The central Board of Direct Taxes and The Central Board of Excise and Customs," the ATR said in the concluding paragraph of the 3-page report that was approved by the Union cabinet in the morning.
Justice Pathak during his hearings did not find any evidence that Natwar Singh had got money out of the deal.
"There is no material to show that Shri Natwar Singh derived any financial or other personal benefit from the contracts," the ATR said.
"The inquiry authority has absolutely no evidence whatsoever to link the congress party to the transactions discussed in this report and except for the fact that Shri K Natwar Singh and Shri K Jagat Singh belonged to the Indian Congress party there is not a shred of evidence to link the congress party to the said transactions. The inquiry authority believes upon examination of all the documents and material which exist before it and that no wrongdoing can be attributed to the congress party," the ATR noted.
While giving him a clean chit the ATR said that Natwar had acted as a facilitator for the procurement of the contracts.
