Oil-for-food: Natwar admits to help Andleeb

NEW DELHI: Beleaguered Natwar Singh, indicted in the Iraqi oil-for-food scam, on Friday admitted that he wrote to Iraqi authorities to help Andleeb Sehgal, a friend of his son Jagat and insisted there was nothing wrong about it.

Indicted by the Pathak Authority of misusing his position, the former External Affairs Minister told a news channel that he had told Justice Pathak that the signatures on the letters were his, but the language was not his.

"Even if I wrote those letters, where is it specified that give them oil contracts, give them vouchers, do this and other things. I have said he is a young man, he is coming to you. Please help him", Singh said justifying his letters.

Asked whether Sehgal getting the oil vouchers in the name of Congress party could not be construed as acting as a middleman for him, Singh said that Swiss company Masefield A G had said it had not heard of Natwar Singh.

"Have I signed any contract or have I got any voucher, have I got any receipt? Do I have a foreign bank account? Does my son has a foreign bank account? No.", he said.

He rejected a demand for a CBI inquiry saying it was a FEMA case