After removing Anil Goswami from the post of Home Secretary for attempting to dissuade the CBI from arresting former Congress Minister Matang Sinh in the Saradha chit fund scam, the Government has directed the CBI to prepare a list of bureaucrats and senior police officials who have nexus with Sinh.
Sources said Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh has asked CBI Director Anil Sinha to compile the list of bureaucrats who helped Sinh in expanding his business interests in Assam and other States. Some of the officials may also have helped Sinh in getting loans sanctioned to Sinh’s firms without due diligence.
While flouting his connections in the higher bureaucracy to evade arrest, Sinh had dropped names of several bureaucrats and police officials to the CB investigator during his interrogation. He also disclosed that these officials in both West Bengal and Assam had received share of booty from Saradha boss Sudipta Sen for helping him in setting up multiple chit fund companies, the sources said.
Close to 60 mid-level to senior bureaucrats, senior cops and some retired public servants are already under the agency’s scanner for using their official position to influence people to invest in the group. local administration from Assam and West Bengal helped Sen establish a network of investors and agents.
Sen obliged such babus by giving expensive gifts and many of them were also given cut on a monthly basis, the sources said.
The agency has found that Sinh had introduced several bureaucrats and police officials in Assam to Sudipta Sen during his several visits to the State while he was setting up his companies to lure gullible investors. These officials had allegedly gone out of the way to help Sen and also endorsed Saradha Group of companies.
During his meeting with the CBI director Anil Sinha on Wednesday, the Home Minister asked him to provide all the details of bureaucrats and police officials whose names were revealed by Sinh.
The Centre may take stringent action against bureaucrats who could indulge in grave misconduct like Goswami. Sinh is also suspected to have been involved in key postings and transfers of top babus through his relations in the higher echelons of bureaucracy. Apart from looking into any possible culpability of babus who were linked to Sinh, the agency will also enquire into his suspected role in transfers and postings of babus, sources said.
Officially, the CBI maintained that the ambit of the Saradha probe and Sinh’s alleged role in the chit fund scam is not being enlarged at the moment.
The role of a senior IPS officer in a Central paramilitary force is already being probed for his alleged attempts to influence the CBI not to arrest Matang Sinh in the Saradha case.
In its report, the CBI has apprised the DoPT about the conduct of the IPS officer who was brought to the Centre by Goswami. The CBI has also informed the Union Home Ministry about this officer’s conduct.
The officer had initially “requested” a senior CBI official probing the inter-State multi-crore Saradha chit fund scam to carry out questioning of Sinh, an accused in the case, in Delhi and instead of Kolkata, the sources further said.
later, he allegedly made another request to the senior CBI officer in Kolkata not to arrest Sinh when the agency had decided to take him into custody. Sinh, a former Minister of State in PV Narasimha Rao Cabinet, was arrested by the CBI on Saturday.
The IPS officer under the CBI scanner now was earlier hand-picked by Goswami who had also pitched for his posting in the CBI. Sinh also was instrumental in the IPS officer’s Central deputation.
Goswami had to quit on Wednesday after the Government made it clear to him that his continuance on the post was untenable in the light of his misconduct relating to his intervention for stalling Sinh’s arrest in the Saradha scam.
The Government, sources said, is examining the report of the CBI amid speculation that the Central deputation of the IPS officer may be cut short and shunted either back to the West Bengal cadre or shifted to some inconsequential posting.