When there is corruption in high places rarely do you get proof a la Bangaru Laxman of Tehelka fame. Usually the information comes in bits and pieces. Recall the Bofors scandal where even after 18 years we are still not sure who took the money. Moreover, the people who do these high-level deals cover their tracks and being powerful, scare potential sources of disclosure.

The latest bombshell was the Paul Volcker Report. It exposed how coupons for millions of barrels of Iraqi oil were handed out to persons of influence at prices well below the prevailing global rates, allowing the recipients, if they so wished, to make a tidy sum for doing nothing. In India, the report created a sensation because the recipients named were the then foreign minister K. Natwar Singh and the Congress. Natwar was forced to resign. India Today's investigations into Natwar's possible involvement, which he has vociferously denied, and that of his son Jagat and his cousin Andaleeb Sehgal, seemed to come up against a blank wall. We knew that Sehgal's company had deposited the illegal surcharge from the oil deal in the Jordan National Bank. Associate Editor Saurabh Shukla tracked down members of the Congress delegation, led by Natwar, which visited Iraq in January 2001. We already knew Jagat had accompanied his father. Sehgal was in Iraq at the same time. To connect the dots we needed corroboration.

We finally narrowed our focus to a key player, Aniel Matherani, secretary of the Congress' foreign affairs cell, a member of the Congress delegation to Iraq. Shukla spoke to Matherani several times on the telephone and confronted him with facts regarding the crucial trip of 2001. Eventually, Matherani gave details of what really happened. His damning revelations about Natwar's involvement are highly credible: he was part of the inner circle of the Congress and the foreign cell headed by Natwar. Matherani's interview reveals details of how Natwar's Iraq visit in January 2001 was crucial to the alleged deal.

In our previous story we had revealed how the visit had coincided with the first of the two oil allocations made to Natwar. Matherani reveals the facts of that visit in graphic detail and Jagat and Sehgal's involvement as part of the delegation. Says Shukla: "This is crucial information linking Natwar, Jagat and Sehgal to the deal." This is a big piece in the oil-for-food jigsaw puzzle. Hopefully others will be found soon to complete the picture.

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