Beleaguered former External Affairs Minister K Natwar Singh has shot off a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh alleging that "higher-ups" in the government were trying to implicate him and his son, Jagat, in the Volcker case.
"They have been trying for the past six months to prove that either my son or I was implicated and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) have been going hammer and tongs, but they haven't found anything they want because there is nothing," Singh told a news channel on Thursday.
Singh was quoted in a release by the channel as having written on June 7 to the Prime Minister that "the helpless ED officers are telling people that they have instructions from higher-ups to involve my son Jagat by hook or by crook."
The former minister, who along with the Congress party has been named as non-contractual beneficiary in the Volcker report on the Iraqi Oil-for-Food scam, claimed that these higher-ups have gone so far as to tell the ED that if Jagat Singh cannot be booked under FEMA, the agency should find a way to put a money laundering case against him.
"The fact of the matter is that one individual was being asked by the ED to appear 130 times, interrogated for over 500 hours, and told that you must implicate Natwar Singh's son. Now, we know all this and so does the government," he said.
{{/usCountry}}"The fact of the matter is that one individual was being asked by the ED to appear 130 times, interrogated for over 500 hours, and told that you must implicate Natwar Singh's son. Now, we know all this and so does the government," he said.
{{/usCountry}}Asked specifically on who the higher-ups were, Natwar Singh said "this is for you to find out. Ask the Finance Minister, ask the Congress leadership. This is a concerted attempt to target me. May be they will give you the answers".