CPI on Thursday demanded an enquiry into the "conduct" of former Petroleum Minister Ram Naik alleging that some industrialists, who had accompanied him to Iraq during NDA rule, had made money in the Food-for-Oil Programme as he had introduced them to the Iraqi authorities.
Maintaining that the Pathak Authority did not probe all dimensions of the issue, CPI leader Gurudas Dasgupta said, "We demand an enquiry into the conduct of the former Petroleum Minister, who was accompanied by a delegation of industrialists.
"Reliance is not the only one. There were over 100 industrialists who had accompanied Naik. Some of them made money illegally," he said.
"Under the veil of a humanitarian programme, crooks cannot be allowed to make money...Either by getting introduced by a Minister or a former Minister. We are not against doing business, but against illegality. Why are they being allowed to go scot-free".
He also demanded creation of a "unified command" of the three agencies - Enforcement Directorate, Central Board of Direct Taxes and Central Board of Excise and Customs - to probe the "trails of money flow" from the Iraqi oil deals.
Dasgupta also demanded that the government should on its own announce an enquiry into the leakage of the Pathak report to the media "to stop people from taking political advantage of it".
{{/usCountry}}Dasgupta also demanded that the government should on its own announce an enquiry into the leakage of the Pathak report to the media "to stop people from taking political advantage of it".
{{/usCountry}}He also demanded that the floods in different parts of the country be declared national calamity.