HYDERABAD : The BJP has demanded seizure of the passports of Congress president Sonia Gandhi and Union Minister Natwar Singh and booking of criminal cases against those involved in the oil-for-food scam.

Addressing a gathering near the Indira Park here on Tuesday, BJP national vice-president Muktar Abbas Naqvi said that Mr. Singh should be dismissed from the Cabinet and Ms. Gandhi quit as chairperson of the United Progressive Alliance. He wanted the judicial inquiry by R.S. Pathak to be vested with powers of a criminal court.

The party would continue the agitation inside and outside Parliament till the Congress and those involved in the scandal were punished.

House-to-house campaign

Party national secretary Bandaru Dattatreya wanted the CBI to look into the scam, saying it was a bigger one than Bofors. The BJP would organise house-to-house campaign and urge people to throw out the Congress.

Party State president N. Indrasena Reddy alleged that the Left parties were adopting double standards by supporting the Congress leadership and Mr. Natwar Singh on the issue.

Earlier, a party delegation, led by Mr. Naqvi, met Governor Sushil Kumar Shinde and submitted a memorandum listing the demands, including an impartial, high-level inquiry into the "involvement" of Leaders in the scam.

The memorandum alleged that during the period when UN allowed Iraq to sell oil to various countries, 40 lakh barrels were allotted in the name of the Congress, of which 10 lakh barrels was purchased and sold by Masefield company.

It alleged that the firm purchased 20 lakh barrels of the 40 lakh barrels allotted to Mr. Singh.

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