The central investigating agency is also likely to question the persons who had allegedly received money from the Saradha group chief Sudipto Sen.
Sources in the CBI told The Assam Tribune that a team of the Bureau today carried out simultaneous raids in 14 places in the State. The CBI raided the residence of legislator Himanta Biswa Sarma, who was the Health and Education Minister of the State till recently, while the office of TV channel News Live was also raided. Sarma’s wife is the Managing Director of News Live.
The CBI also raided the residence of legislator and former Minister Anjan Dutta and the residences of former Director General of Police, Sankar Barua, singer Sadananda Gogoi and the premises of the Brahmaputra Jungle Resort owned by Tridib Sarma. The residences of two Saradha employees were also raided in Dhubri.
Sources said that the Bureau officials further raided seven places in Kolkata and one in Mumbai today in connection with the scam. The sources revealed that the persons whose houses were raided today are likely to be questioned soon. Both the legislators, whose houses were raided today, were not present in the Assam Assembly today.
During questioning by the CBI, Sudipto Sen had claimed that he had regularly paid money to Himanta Biswa Sarma and Sankar Barua as “protection money” while he was doing business in Assam and it was Sarma who had inaugurated the biscuit factory of the group in Dhubri.
The Saradha group’s newspaper, which was later closed down, was published from the press owned by Anjan Dutta and later Sen tried to buy the press along with a newspaper owned by Dutta, but the deal did not materialize.
On the other hand, Sadananda Gogoi was involved in a few advertisement campaigns of the Saradha group and according to Sen, it was Gogoi who had introduced him to Himanta Biswa Sarma.
Meanwhile, Sen wanted to invest in the Brahmaputra Jungle Resort and an agreement was signed in this regard, but the deal did not materialize as the Saradha chief failed to fulfil the clauses of the agreement.
It may be mentioned that the CBI has already raided the residences of former Union Minister Matang Singh and Manoranjana Singh in connection with the case, and the latter was questioned in Kolkata as well.
The Saradha group cheated thousands of depositors of Assam by promising high returns against their deposits and only the Guwahati office of the group collected more than Rs 100 crore. But the group later failed to repay the depositors and the Saradha chief managed to escape. He was later arrested in Jammu and Kashmir.
Source: Assam Tribune
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