Saradha: Home secretary resigns

New Delhi, February 4: Union Home Secretary Anil Goswami resigned on Wednesday following a controversy over his alleged role in trying to stall former Congress minister Matang Sinh’s arrest in the multi–crore–rupee Saradha chit fund scam, official sources said.

Goswami met Home Minister Rajth Singh and submitted his resigtion, a home ministry official told IANS.

Goswami was earlier in the day summoned by Union Home Minister Rajth Singh to his office at North Block.

The Home Minister called Goswami soon after he came to office Wednesday morning. They discussed the issue for nearly an hour.

After the meeting, Goswami refused to take any questions from the media.

This meeting was immediately followed by Singh calling CBI director Anil Sinha, who apparently briefed the Minister about the sequence of events that unfolded ahead Sinh’s arrest.

Goswami is alleged to have spoken to a CBI officer on phone on the issue of the arrest of former Union minister Matang Sinh in the Saradha scam.

Sinh was recently arrested by the CBI in Kolkata in connection with the multi–crore Saradha chit fund scam. He was a minister of state (parliamentary affairs) in the rsimha Rao government in the 1990s.

Sinh is known to have a good clout in Delhi. He is also closed to former minister P Chidambaram.

Sinha also refused to take any questions from the waiting media outside the office of the Home Minister. The Director held a separate meeting with Goswami.

The CBI is believed to have sent a report to the Prime Minister’s Office in this regard, sources in the agency said. (IANS)