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New Delhi, Jul 3: The Chennai judge-minister scandal reverberated in Rajya Sabha on the opening day of the budget session with the Opposition alleging that the government wasn't interested in identifying the Union minister who was trying to influence a Madras High Court judge into granting bail to a businessman, accused in an MBBS marksheet forgery scam.

The judge R Reghupathy on Monday stunned the court with his disclosure during the hearing of a bail application in the forgery case that a Union minister had called him to say that the accused should be granted bail. As expected, the government came under heavy fire from the Opposition for its silence over the "blatant misuse of power" by a Union minister.

While the judge hasn't named the minister who tried to influence him, AIADMK chief J Jayalalitha on Thursday named telecommunication minister A Raja as the member of the Union Cabinet who lobbied the judge to grant bail to the father-son duo accused in the forgery case.

In Rajya Sabha, leaders did not name names, but seemed to make allusions to Raja. Leader of Opposition Arun Jaitley and AIADMK MP V Maitreyan had the House in splits as they brought up words like `raja' and `king' several times while attacking the government. "Is the minister a raja who cannot be held accountable," Jaitley said as he attacked the government for "interference in the judicial system".

The Leader of Opposition asked the PM to order an enquiry to ascertain the identity of the minister and drop him from the Cabinet. He also said it could be an individual act of misdemeanour and that the telecom department should be asked to cull out details of the call made to the judge.

Maitreyan said the `king' continues to hold his portfolio and that nobody from the government had come forward to take responsibility. "I had warned the PM about the company he was keeping. These elements should have been dumped by the Cabinet. PM ki ganga mailee ho gayee papiyon ke paap dhote dhote," he said and urged the government to register a criminal case. He also asked the government to probe the murder of Pondicherry University employee, Jayaraman, who allegedly blew the lid off the marksheet forgery scam.

CPM leader Brinda Karat said this was an assault on judiciary and accused the government of conniving with the accused by not taking any action. "Why should the government wait for the judge to reveal the name of the minister? The PM's silence is deafening. We look at him to uphold the rule of law. It is clear that there is a nexus between the minister and the businessman who has been charged in the forgery case," said Karat.