CBI gets 5-day custody of ex-minister’s wife Manoranjana in Saradha scam

NewsGram Staff Writer

Kolkata: A city court on Thursday sent Manoranjana , the estranged wife of Congress leader Matang Sinh, to CBI custody for five day for her alleged involvement in the Saradha scam.

Manoranjana, along with Kolkata-based entrepreneur and chairman of the now-defunct Xenitis Group, Santanu Ghosh, was arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Wednesday for their alleged complicity in the multi-crore-rupee ponzi.

Rejecting their bail plea, the court sent the duo to CBI custody till October 13.

According to the CBI, they were "involved in a criminal conspiracy with Saradha group head and scam kingpin Sudipta Sen and misappropriated huge amounts running into crores of rupees".

The CBI had arrested Matang Sinh in January and charge-sheeted him for several offenses including cheating and criminal conspiracy.

The CBI and the Enforcement Directorate had since 2014 been grilling Manoranjana who, along with many other high-profile names, has been accused of complicity in the scam by Sudipta Sen in his 2013 tell-all letter to the CBI.

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

She had also purportedly taken Sen to the lawyer-wife of a former union minister for settling a deal, Sen claimed in the letter.

Santanu Ghosh, said to have made several business transactions with the tainted group, was arrested in June 2014 by the Enforcement Directorate under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.

He was subsequently granted bail in August last year by a city court.

(With inputs from IANS)