Manoranja Sinh arrested

Saradha Chit Fund Scam

OUR BUREAU & AGENCIES

GUWAHATI/KOLKATA, Oct 7: Manoranja Sinh, the estranged wife of former Union minister Matang Sinh was arrested by the CBI on Wednesday in connection with the Saradha chit fund case.

The CBI also grilled actor-turned Trimool Congress MP Tapas Paul in connection with the multi-crore-rupee Saradha and Rose Valley ponzi scams, on Wednesday.

The CBI had earlier arrested Matang Sinh in this connection.

"Yes, we have arrested Manoranja Sinh," a CBI spokesperson told IANS over phone.

Manoranja was summoned to the CBI's Special Crime Branch in the satellite township of Salt Lake and taken into custody after hours of questioning.

The CBI and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) had since 2014 been quizzing Manoranja, who along with many other high-profile mes, has been accused of complicity in the scam by Saradha group head and kingpin Sudipta Sen in his 2013 tell-all letter to the CBI.

Manoranja, a former jourlist, had allegedly sold her shares in an audio-visual channel to the Saradha Group.

She had also purportedly taken Sen to her lawyer lini Chidambaram, wife of former Union minister P Chidambaram for settling a deal, Sen claimed in the letter.

Along with Manoranja Sinh, CBI has also arrested a businessman Santanu Ghosh in connection with the case.

Manoranja Sinh had allegedly taken money from Saradha group chairman Sudipto Sen by threatening him.

In January this year, CBI had arrested Matang Sinh for his alleged role in the scam.

Sinh, known for his influence in the power corridors, especially the bureaucracy when Congress was in the power, had threatened CBI officers when he was being arrested.

Former Union home secretary Anil Goswami had to lose his job for trying to save Sinh from CBI arrest.

In his 18-page letter to CBI in April 2013, Saradha scam kingpin Sudipta Sen had alleged that Sinh had taken Rs 28 crore from the Group to launch channel and didn't return the money.

Profile

* Manoranja Sinh started her career as a jourlist in the early 90s with Business Standard.

* She was covering Parliament when she came into contact with Matang Sinh, who was the MoS Parliamentary Affairs in the PV rsimha Rao cabinet.

* The duo got married and has a son from the marriage.

* Matang Sinh and Manoranja Sinh founded Positiv Television Group Pvt Ltd in 2003 and started NETV, the first satellite channel of Northeast India. The company also pioneered FM in the region with four FM stations under the flagship 'Ooolala'.

* Manoranja Sinh headed the channel till 2008 as the Maging Director until Matang Sinh threw her out of the company through a public notice in 2008 following a family dispute.

* Manoranja Sinh later founded Frontier TV in 2010-11.

* Frontier TV was later forced to shut down due to fincial crisis.

* At the time of her arrest she was reportedly working to revamp the news channel.