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Parliament adjourned over Volcker drama Onkar Singh in New Delhi | August 04, 2006 12:16 IST Both houses of Parliament were adjourned on Friday after the Opposition raised the leakage of Justice R S Pathak's report on the Volcker Commission findings in the oil-for-food scam to the media before it was tabled in Parliament, and said this was a clear case of breach of Parliament's privilege. The Opposition charged that there was a clear case of breach of privilege against Prime Minister Manmohan Singh as the report was leaked a day after Justice Pathak handed over the report to Dr Singh. Samajwadi Party leader Amar Singh wanted to know how the Congress can be given a clean chit while the minister in its government, K Natwar Singh, was indicted for the scam. He alleged that junior lawyers in ministers Kapil Sibal and P Chidambaram's office assisted Justice Pathak in formulating the final report. Sibal, when asked about this, denied the allegation. "I have not even had a lawyer for the last several months. Where is the question of my juniors assisting Justice Pathak?" He even refused to confirm the details of the report's findings which appeared in the media, claiming that since he had not seen the report how could he comment. Former external affairs minister Yeshwant Sinha, of the Bharatiya Janata Party, said it was a deliberate leak by the government with an eye to fix Natwar Singh. Natwar Singh had claimed that Finance Minister P Chidambaram's office had leaked the details of the report to the media.
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