‘Masefield paid London NRI Aditya Khanna who then re-routed money’

While ED officials are tight-lipped, sources in the Government said that last month, ED issued a ‘‘look-out’’ notice at all airports in the country for Khanna that he was wanted for questioning.

An ED team which returned from Iraq in January end has returned with documents showing that Khanna used two companies, Pipal Solutions and Tamarind Foods, with bank accounts in Luxembourg and London respectively, to route the surcharge money to the Jordan National Bank and then to Indian beneficiaries. The accounts with Barclays Bank and the Lloyds bank in London are under scanner.

According to the Volcker report, Hamdaan’s Andaleeb Sehgal, a close friend of Jagat Singh—son of former External Affairs Minister Natwar Singh—paid Rs 3.3 crore as “illegal surcharges.”

While Aditya Khanna was unavailable for comment, his brother, Arvind Khanna, told The Indian Express that Aditya had offered himself for questioning in London but had not come to India since he feared an extended detention. He also said that Pipal Solutions was a company which the family has since closed down.

‘‘None of the companies of our family has anything to do with oil contracts or with Masefield. My brother is in no way involved with the oil contracts and, in any case, as an NRI, he is not supposed to declare his transactions to the Indian Government,’’ Arvind Khanna said.

Sources said Aditya Khanna’s interrogation is crucial and should he not respond to ED’s summons, a ‘‘red-alert’’ notice may be issued at all international airports. Sources added that at no stage in the entire transaction was the RBI informed or involved and thus, the eventual penalties slapped on contractors could run into crores.

It is understood that while Aditya Khanna’s alleged involvement cropped up in statements given to the ED by players like Jamil Saidi (a former Congress leader who has acted as a consultant for Indian companies trading in Iraq), documents were first recovered by the ED during searches in the Delhi office of Khanna’s company, Dynamic Sales. One particular recovery was a Year 2000 diary in which a senior company official had jotted down points in pencil for an oil contract being entered into by Aditya Khanna and Masefield.