Thiruvananthapuram: Days after the Kerala Government informed the High Court that Nelliyampathy estates in Palakkad district are reserve forests and all the estate owners can only be treated as 'encroachers,' Forest Minister KB Ganesh Kumar sought CBI probe into related cases Saturday. 

He said that the crime branch probe ordered into the loan fraud committed by a group of estate owners in Nelliyampathy by pledging forest land in banks was not sufficient as domestic banks were also involved in the case.

The Thrissur Vigilance court had recently ordered a probe against Finance Minister K M Mani and Government Chief Whip, P C George on the Nelliyampathy estates land issue.

The Nelliyampathy issue is snowballing into a crisis in the UDF with some Congress MLAs prevailing upon the government for taking strong steps against the encroachers and to retrieve the lands whose lease period had expired.