Natwar admits he wrote letter to help Sehgal

The EAM says the letter was request to Iraqi authorities to help Andaleeb, but there was nothing wrong in it.

Former minister Natwar Singh on Friday night admitted that he wrote to Iraqi authorities to help Andaleeb Sehgal, a friend of his son Jagat, and insisted there was nothing wrong about it.

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The former minister told a TV news channel that he had told Justice Pathak that the signatures on the letters were his, but the language was not his. He asked the government to make the letters public. “Let the nation know what I wrote,” he said.

"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 Swiss company Masefield AG 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 have a foreign bank account? No," he said.

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

Left sceptical

It would be difficult to prove corruption charges against former foreign minister Natwar Singh, as the Justice Pathak Inquiry Authority report has not proved any charge against him, CPI (M) leader Sitaram Yechury said on Friday.