New Delhi: West Bengal and its ruling party Trinamool Congress today moved the Supreme Court seeking a court-monitored CBI probe into the multi-crore rupee Saradha scam, alleging that the agency was acting as an "instrument" of the Centre and targetting the TMC leaders.
A bench, headed by Justice T S Thakur, said it would hear the separate pleas of the government and the TMC during the week, after senior advocate Kapil Sibal alleged that the CBI was leaking crucial information to others even before they reached the state government.
"Information is reaching other parties much earlier than the West Bengal government as there is a leakage," Sibal said while asking the bench to hear the applications on Thursday.
Earlier the apex court, on May 9 last year, had ordered CBI probe into the chit-fund scams in West Bengal, Odisha and Assam in which various companies, including Saradha, while taking note of allegations of scamsters getting "patronage" of people in "high positions".
All India Trinamool Congress, through its state general secretary Mahua Moitra, has moved the court for being made one of the parties to the petition and sought a court-monitored CBI investigation in the scam.
"Direct and restrain the CBI to desist from leaking the details of investigation in the cases being investigated by the CBI in terms of judgment dated May 09, 2014 to the media/press," one of the pleas said.