CPI-M demands probe against Natwar

New Delhi: The Congress may have rejected the Volcker Committee Report but it's ally the CPI-M wants a probe.

"Let there be a proper investigation before jumping to a conclusion," Sitaram Yechury, Rajya Sabha MP and member of the politburo of the CPI-M said.

The report has indicted External Affairs Minister Natwar Singh and the Congress Party as "non-contractual beneficiaries" of the UN Oil-for-Food Programme.

BJP and JD(U) pressed for the resignation of the External Affairs Minister, saying he cannot stay even for a minute in his post after the findings in the report.

Natwar Singh and the Congress party have denied any role in the Oil-for-Food programme in Iraq.

Standing by him, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said on Sunday that there was "insufficient" material to arrive at any adverse conclusion against the External Affairs Minister.

Singh had expressed his outrage at what he termed as "baseless and untrue" allegations in the report and dubbed it as part of the campaign to malign the Congress party and its senior leaders.

But the UN sponsored Paul Volcker committee continues to produce more evidence on the illegal links.

The committee in its latest revelation has said that a close associate of the Foreign Minister's family and his company made illegal payments to the Saddam regime on four occasions between March and December 2001.