Thiruvananthapuram, The Congress on Saturday urged the national leadership of the CPI-M to ask Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan to quit, while a CBI probe should be ordered into the data transfer of COVID-19 suspects to a US-based PR and marketing firm Sprinklr.

The data scam has been raging in Kerala for over a week after it was first raised by Leader of Opposition Ramesh Chennithala and then by former Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, when they pointed out that this data transfer had no clearance from any state government department, the Kerala cabinet or the Centre.

While addressing the media on Saturday, state Congress president Mullapally Ramachandran asked Vijayan to quit and the CPI-M politburo to come clean.

"We are all waiting to hear what they (CPI-M) have to say on this blatant data scam.. Only a CBI probe would bring out the truth, as this is a monstrous data scam and a bigger one that SNC Lavalin, the case where Vijayan is linked to and is now before the apex court," said Ramachandran.

He further said that everyone wanted to know as to who brought the Sprinklr company to India and if it had any connections in Bengaluru.

Senior Congress legislator P.T. Thomas expressed concerns if the sudden disappearing of the website of Vijayan's daughter's IT firm based in Benguluru was linked to the Sprinklr data scam.

"The IT company of Vijayan's daughter is in operation since 2014 and after the data controversy broke out, the website of her company has disappeared. Certain areas of the Sprinklr website also have been masked," said Thomas.

In a related development the decision to hand over the data to Sprinklr has come as a petition before the Kerala High Court.

IT Secretary M.Sivasankaran on Saturday told the media that the decision to hand over the data to Sprinklr was his.

"I am part of the government and it was my call to hand it over to Sprinklr. Now that the issue is before the court, let a decision come and if my decision was wrong, it can be relooked," said Sivasankaran.