New Delhi: The CBI on June 2 told a court that involvement of former Union Minister of State Gingee Ramachandran in the "cash-for-transfer" scam could not be ruled out and the agency had collected information suggesting role of two senior finance ministry officials.

Seeking further remand of Ramachandran's personal secretary A Perumalsamy, CBI counsel A S Cheema told special judge V K Jain that "it cannot be ruled out that the minister himself may be involved" in the scam.

However, the counsel did not give a definite reply when asked whether the agency had questioned the minister and said, "We are in the process of investigating the case".

The agency had also collected information suggesting the role of two senior finance ministry officials in the scam, he said without naming them and added that the accused needed to be interrogated about this.

Taking note of the submissions, the court extended Perumalsamy's police custody till June 5.

CBI has already questioned some senior finance ministry officials in connection with the scam.

"Investigation has revealed some kind of racket operating in the matter of transfer of income tax officials," Cheema said adding searches carried out on the accused's premises led to recovery of lists containing names of many officers, who allegedly secured transfer through him.

While some of them had been questioned, certain others still needed to be interrogated, he said.

The CBI has also come across some names from whom the accused had received donations, the counsel added.

PTI