Date:02/05/2006 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2006/05/02/stories/2006050216891200.htm

National

Speed up probe, says Natwar

New Delhi: Senior Congress leader Natwar Singh and his son Jagat Singh on Monday urged the Justice Pathak Inquiry Panel to speed up the probe into the Volcker Committee report naming the former External Affairs Minister and the Congress as non-contractual beneficiaries.

No link with scam

In their reply to the second notice issued by the Panel, whose term has been extended for three months beyond May 10 when it completes six months, they again denied having any connection with the oil-for-food scam in Iraq.

Name added as after-thought

Natwar Singh submitted that his name was absent in the Volcker report prepared in February, 2004 and that it was added as an "after-thought" on the basis of a report published in `Al-Meda' newspaper in Iraq. His name was added only after he became the External Affairs Minister, he contended. He also denied having written any letter in connection with any oil deal in Iraq.

PTI