The Supreme Court, on the basis of an interim report of the Central Bureau of Investigation, said four to five persons were involved in the Taj Mahal controversy.

"We direct a higher official of the CBI to immediately interrogate four to five or more persons who were involved in the decision-making process to grant contract for the construction of the Taj Heritage Corridor project," a bench comprising Justice M B Shah and Justice A R Lakshmanan said.

The bench rejected the CBI's plea seeking four months to complete the probe and asked it to submit the final investigation report by September 11.

It said it would be open to the investigating officer not only interrogating the "four to five" persons, but also verifying their assets because it was alleged that Rs 17 crore were released for the project without proper sanction.

The court directed the CBI to act without giving opportunity to these persons named in the report to manoeuvre.

In the report the CBI had stated that some papers were "interpolated" by someone, the court said.

To detect the interpolation, the bench directed that the papers be forwarded to Central Forensic Sciences Laboratory immediately for opinion.

It said the CFSL would give its opinion immediately without taking the plea that similar matters were pending before it.