To make matters worse for the government, a voluntary organisation called the centre for public interest litigation challenged Bezbaruah's transfer in the Supreme Court as a mala fide act since he was pursuing cases against AIADMK supreme J.Jayalalitha.

Even though the ruling BJP denied the allegations of bribery and the PMO sources said Janarthanan's concurrence was not necessary for the official's transfer, the issue is now threatening to go out of hand for the fledgling coalition.

Jayalalitha has already demanded reinstatement of Bezbaruah as the ED director saying she had no hand in his shifting and that the PMO had done so at the instance of a newspaper baron who was beinghotly pursued by the official in a fera case.

Janarthanan, a AIADMK minister, took the matter further on Monday by publicly alleging that he was side-tracked in the matter deliberately. Joining issue on the controversial transfer, he told reporters that proper procedure was not followed in Bezbaruah's shifting.

The minister disclosed that he had asked Bezbaruah not to hand over the charge of enforcement directorate but the latter expressed his inability to do so. When reporters sought to know why he was ''sidetracked'', he quipped "you ask Vajpayee Jee."

As for the life of the Vajpayee government, the AIADMK minister said the media should not misinterpret his party's right to voice its demand on the Cauvery issue. The demand for acceptance of its stand on Cauvery should not be construed as threat to the government, he added. ''How many threats the DMK had held out to the united Front government. Did anybody bother to know?'' he queried in return.

The centre for public interest litigation, in itspetition before the Supreme Court, charged that the Centre did this to scuttle the prosecution of Jayalalitha whose support was crucial for the present Government's survival.

The petition, filed on Monday maintained that the order transferring Bezbaruah from the Enforcement Directorate to Delhi Government as transport secretary was "arbitrary and mala fide and made for extraneous considerations."

Obviously fishing in the troubled waters, the Congress party on Monday said Jayalalitha's charges were too grave to be overlooked. Nothing short of a high-level enquiry would satisfy the party, especially when charges of corruption were levelled against the Prime Minister's Office, it was stated by party spokesman Ajit Jogi.

Reminding the Government that the office of the Prime minister would be within the purview of the Lokpal as per Vajpayee's own assertion from the ramparts of the Red Fort, Jogi said the government should make public details of the background and rationale behind the recent transfers. Healso wanted the government to inquire, find out and reveal the identity of the person in the PMO mentioned by Jayalalitha.