Paul Volcker on Tuesday said he will co-operate with the judicial commission that will probe Union minister K Natwar Singh's and the Congress' role in Iraq's corrupt oil-for-food programme.
The Volcker report had named Natwar Singh as a non-contractual beneficiary in the programme, following which Natwar was divested of his external ministry portfolio.
"Volcker said that the Independent Inquiry Committee will cooperate with the commission to the extent that they can legally," India's Ambassador to the United Nations Nirupam Sen, who met Volcker on Tuesday morning, said.
Regarding documents, Sen said since the documents were obtained from several sources, in some cases they would have to obtain a waiver from the sources.
"They will have to operate within the legal limits," he said.
Sen said he apprised Volcker of the Indian government's decision to appoint former chief justice of the Supreme Court R S Pathak and former under secretary general of the UN Virender Dayal to investigate the allegations.
Sen said the IIC is not a judicial body and cannot make a judicial determination.
He said he told Volcker that since the IIC made certain allegations 'it is their responsibility to cooperate in sharing the basis for this allegation'.
"The evidence can only he shared with a judicial body or investigative agency and we (Permanent Mission) are not a judicial body," Sen said.
Sen also said one has to wait till Justice Pathak and Dayal come and meet Volcker.
"Very fundamentally, they are in the process of obtaining these waivers. So, the question of their sharing anything with us at this stage does not arise," Sen added.
Asked if he was satisfied with the meeting, he said, "I am satisfied to the extent that the committee agreed to cooperate with the investigating authorities and to share documents within the legal constraints."
Sen said he did not know when Pathak and Dayal would come meet Volcker, but added that they would have come before the IIC is disbanded, which is in about a month's time.
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