By IANS
Chail (Himachal Pradesh) : Even a downpour could not come in their way as former foreign minister K. Natwar Singh's son Jagat Singh married Somaya, sister of his friend Andaleeb Sehgal at exactly 7 p.m. – to match the fancied date of 07-07-07. In the process, the two friends turned their alleged link in the oil-for-food scam into a "relationship".
While rain in this resort town forced the wedding ceremony indoors, it did begin sharp at 7 p.m. inside the sprawling Palace Hotel, a heritage monument which once served as the palace of the Maharaja of Patiala.
The hotel staff worked frantically to shift the venue indoors after heavy rain ruined all arrangements made in the open at the heritage property located amid tall deodar trees in scenic Chail.
They were just in time to make arrangements for the ceremony indoors, family sources said.
They said the entire hotel had been booked since Friday for the wedding which was attended by selected invitees whose names were not revealed.
"Staff at the hotel has also been instructed not to reveal anything to anyone," a hotel official told IANS.
The media were not allowed at the wedding that was reportedly organised by Mohinder Kaur, the maternal grandmother of Jagat and mother of former Punjab chief minister Amarinder Singh.
It was the second marriage for Jagat whose first wife committed suicide.
Natwar Singh had to resign from the post of external affairs minister and was later suspended from the Congress party along with Jagat Singh after they were named in the Paul Volcker report of 2005 on irregularities in the UN's oil-for-food programme in Iraq.
The report also named New Delhi-based businessman Andaleeb, saying that he and the father-son duo had been associated with a firm that acted as conduit for illegal sales of oil.
Incidentally, none of Natwar Singh's political 'friends' from either Himachal Pradesh or neighbouring Punjab attended the wedding, given his strained relationship with Congress president Sonia Gandhi.
"I don't think any senior Congress leaders or ministers, some of whom know Natwar personally, are likely to attend the wedding," a state minister earlier told IANS on condition of anonymity.