Kolkata: Former Union Minister Matang Sinh was arrested today in connection with the Saradha scam by CBI which is now probing his alleged “deep nexus” with a senior bureaucrat in the Home ministry, who had purportedly helped him evade arrest.
Sinh, who was arrested by the Special Investigation Team of CBI here, was charged with criminal conspiracy, cheating and misappropriation of funds related to Saradha Realty, one of the companies of the group which is being probed by the agency, CBI sources said.
The sources said it has come up during the investigation that Sinh was allegedly in “deep nexus” with higher echelons of bureaucracy and has also been “extorting” money in their name.
The former Congress MP, who was Minister of State for Home Affairs in the Narasimha Rao government, had allegedly been using the name of this senior official to get deals settled and getting work done, they said.
They said now his questioning may throw some links with the senior bureaucrat to ascertain whether the official was involved in the scam or not.
CBI has already chargesheeted Sinh in a loan default case in February 2013 where he allegedly did not repay Rs 67 crore loan taken from Canara Bank for floating M-3 Channel.
The sources said several other cases are also pending against him.
Sinh is the first former Union Minister to be arrested by the agency in connection with the case.
The sources said he was called to the CBI headquarter of here where he was grilled by the SIT for over five hours before being arrested.
They said the arrest became imminent as he was not cooperating with the investigation team prompting the agency to take him into custody. (PTI)
