Andaleeb Sehgal’s office in Defence Colony and his wife Suhani outside the enforcement directorate office. Pictures by Ramakant Kushwaha and PTI

New Delhi, Nov. 7: Andaleeb ‘Andy’ Sehgal is not the sort of person who would be seen spending 10 hours in the dingy quarters of Delhi’s Lok Nayak Bhawan.

The building houses a liquor shop on the ground floor and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on the fourth. The “fourth floor” is identified as the place from where a man jumped to his death in the early nineties, allegedly while being interrogated.

The grim floor is an unlikely setting for a man who comes from one of the capital’s “old and established” families ? his father Jitendra Pandit owns Pandit Brothers, a car accessories showroom in Connaught Place.

Sehgal is not the only one said to be linked to the scandal. Vikas Dhar, his partner in Hamadan Exports, the company that the Paul Volcker report names as having paid Rs 3.22 crore as “illegal surcharge” to Saddam Hussein, is also likely to face the heat.

Dhar, like Sehgal, has friends in high places and has an impressive lineage. He is the grandson of Indira Gandhi’s principal adviser and trusted friend D.P. Dhar, the man who conveyed the famous message ? “Buddha is smiling” ? to Mrs Gandhi after the 1974 nuclear test in Pokhran.

Sehgal and Dhar make a formidable pair, a fact unlikely to escape their investigators’ notice.

Hamadan Exports was registered by the director general of foreign trade at an Asaf Ali Road address in 1991. But whether it got an import-export code is now being investigated by the Enforcement Directorate.

The directorate is also examining whether his company had sought RBI clearance for conducting foreign exchange transactions abroad. The mode of his alleged payment in dollars ? whether by cash or cheque ? to Jordan National Bank is also being looked into.

Hamadan Exports was also said to be one of the companies listed with exporters for de-registration by the Agricultural and Processed Food Exports Development Agency. This lead, sources said, has pointed to the firm’s connection with the export of wheat and clothes to Iraq.

After questioning Sehgal, directorate officials are not taking him lightly. “He came fully prepared. He seemed to have been briefed well by his lawyers,” a source said.

Not surprising, given Sehgal’s powerful family background. He and his business partner Dhar are an integral part of Delhi’s swish set.

Sehgal is married to Suhani Kumari, a princess from Nalagarh in Himachal Pradesh. He and Natwar Singh’s son Jagat are not only childhood friends, they are related through marriage. Suhani is the daughter of Nalagarh’s Vijayendra Singh, who is a cousin of Natwar’s wife.

Sehgal’s proximity to Natwar’s family is not a secret. He was known to have helped Jagat after his wife Natasha committed suicide by jumping from the top floor of a five-star hotel in March 2002. Sehgal had reportedly received text messages from Natasha before her death.

Natasha and Jagat were going through divorce proceedings and she was embroiled in a bitter custodial battle with him over their two children.

The police had questioned Jagat, who Natasha’s parents had held responsible for her suicide.