PTI

New Delhi, Aug 10: The CPI (M) on Wednesday sought to shift the focus of the Iraqi oil scam to Reliance industries and the BJP by demanding "special investigation" into the oil dealings of the giant company with the Saddam Hussein regime.

Reliance industries had lifted 15.87 million barrels of oil which had not been investigated, the CPI (M) Polit bureau said in a statement adding it had demanded that the Pathak inquiry authority investigate these allotments. "But surprisingly, this was not done," it said.

The party said the "silence" of the BJP on this issue was also "illuminating". It was during the BJP-led government that these allotments to Reliance industries were given.

"The CPI (M), therefore, demands that a special investigation be carried out on the oil transactions and surcharges paid by the biggest Indian beneficiary, the Reliance Company. It is incumbent upon the UPA government to submit a report on the biggest 'non-contractual' beneficiary," the polit bureau said.

The then Petroleum Minister and BJP leader Ram Naik said he had led a delegation of Indian industry in the oil sector and it was his duty to promote Indian business there.

The Iraqi regime there had offered to give oil at a price lower than the international prices but wanted a surcharge to be paid to it on the deals, he said adding he expressed inability to accept the offer as government companies could not do that. Private companies could do that, he added.