The letter, a terse query seeking evidence of bribery, was intended to put her on the backfoot. Jayalalitha had alleged in a letter to prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee on Sunday that persons close to him were bribed to ease out Enforcement Directorate director MK Bezbaruah.

However, claiming that she had received no such letter, Jayalalitha on Tuesday demanded a CBI probe into the transfer issue. She said ``it is rather strange and also funny that I have not received any such letter so far'', in a two-page statement issued at 1 pm. AIADMK sources maintained that they did not receive the letter well into the evening.

While ridiculing the PMO for releasing the contents of the letter to the press before it reached her, she said `a proper reply will be sent' when the letter was received.

She also had a three-hour discussion with Kadumbur Janarthanan and Thambidurai, her ministers in the central government. Speaking to the waiting reporters after the meeting Union law minister Thambidurai said that it was a `routine meeting' they had come to discuss party issues and not the present crisis.

He maintained that the AIADMK front's stand on Cauvery remained unchanged and the earlier draft scheme should be notified, this despite the fact that Supreme Court has accepted the new arrangement. He disagreed that the acceptance by Supreme Court was a setback to his party. On whether the front would withdraw its ministers, he said that those were the rumours floated by the media asking ``why (do) we have to resign''.