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Journalism of Courage
Virender Dayal, special envoy with the R S Pathak Inquiry Commission, has received documents from the Volcker Committee needed to further probe the involvement of former Foreign Minister Natwar Singh and the Congress in the Iraq oil-for-food scam.
Dayal was appointed to obtain the documents on the basis of which the Volcker Committee listed several Indian entities and individuals in its October 27 report.
The envoy would not comment on the nature of the documents. “I have got all the essential and key documents required for further investigations and to arrive at the truth,” he said at a news conference here hours before leaving for Delhi. Dayal, who arrived in New York on October 17, met Paul Volcker and other panel members on October 18. He met UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan on Monday.
Dayal said he and his aides might have to come again to New York to collect more documents from the Volcker Commiitee. He added that he had received the “fullest” co-operation from both the panel and Annan’s office.
The envoy said Volcker had provided “swiftest and comprehensive” help while the UN Secretary General was “unhesitantly co-operative”. He added that he received waivers with regard to certain documents in a “matter of moments”.
Dayal, who was here with three other officials, said the documents would now be scrutinised and further investigated by Indian agencies. This would help establish the involvement of individuals and entities in the scam as indicated in the Volcker report.
The envoy said he would also brief former Chief Justice of India Justice R S Pathak, who has been appointed by the Centre to head the judicial probe into the matter.
“When we go home we would see and scrutinise all these documents. It is only then, we would be able to plan about the next move,” he said. “We are going to make an assessment of it. We had a good start,” Dayal added.
Among the documents that Dayal might require on his second visit are those for which the Volcker Committee is yet to get waiver from the agencies concerned for being sent to India. Some of the documents are said to be important. Dayal would not elaborate on this.
