Karat

New Delhi, July 17: A Calcutta-based lawyer has moved the Supreme Court for a CBI probe into the CPM’s assets and those of its top leaders.

The petition by Joydeep Mukherjee cited earlier probes ordered into assets of Mulayam Singh Yadav, Mayavati and Jayalalithaa as precedents for the apex court to intervene in this case.

The lawyer, reportedly a Congress activist, said most of the top CPM leaders, including party chief Prakash Karat and his wife Brinda, and at least eight others, had disclosed assets above Rs 50 lakh during the 2004 Assembly and parliamentary elections.

The petition wondered how these leaders — who claimed they were full-time party workers and got about Rs 3,000 as salary — could have amassed such wealth.