Congress suspends Jagat Singh

NEW DELHI: Ten days after it suspended his father K Natwar Singh, the Congress on Friday showed the door to Jagat Singh, an MLA from Rajasthan. The decision to suspend him was notified by the Rajasthan Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC). The state Congress committee president, BD Kalla, said Jagat, an MLA from Laxmangarh, was suspended from the party for ‘indiscipline’.

The father-son duo had been named by the Justice Pathak Authority, which was probing the findings of the Volcker report, for misusing their position in the Congress to procure oil contracts for Delhi-based businessman Andaleeb Sehgal under the UN oil-for-food programme in Iraq. However the Pathak report had said that the two had not themselves benefited financially out of the contract.

Jagat has been a more vocal critic of the Congress than his father in the wake of the Volcker scam breaking out. He had attacked both the Enforcement Directorate (ED) as well as finance minister P Chidambaram for conducting the investigation into the Volcker findings in a ‘motivated’ manner.

Jagat, who had been seated next to his father during the latter’s interaction with the media last week, has denied that either he or his friend, Mr Sehgal, were part of the Congress delegation to Iraq in ‘01, which was led by Natwar Singh. He has maintained that if the Congress is not guilty of any wrongdoing, then so are his father and him.

The ED had recently seized a Mercedes car which allegedly belonged to Jagat Singh as part of further investigations into the Volcker money trail.