With no clue to the disappearance of Rs 2.60 crore from the BJP headquarters forthcoming, pressure is building up for the ouster of party treasurer Ramdas Agrawal.

The treasurer, who visited the headquarters on Tuesday morning, told the media that the “incident has indeed taken place”. The probe, according to Agrawal, is underway. Party spokesman Ravi Shankar Prasad termed the media reports on the theft “exaggerated” and said the things were “being reconciled”.

While private detectives who have been hired for nabbing the culprit are busy doing their job, accusing fingers are being raised at several office functionaries. The work of the accountant has been assigned to a different person pending the inquiry. Since all four locks in the vault as well as the room have been found intact after the theft, it is certainly the job of an insider who had access to the keys. Finding itself in a financial scandal of sorts, the second since the Bangaru Laxman episode, there is a clear attempt to avoid an exposure of the trail of the money which is likely in case the party approaches the police.

However, senior leaders are also worried about the negative effect of the theft on the party’s image. Its prime ministerial candidate L K Advani is understood to have taken up the matter with party chief Rajnath Singh.