After the Central Bureau of Investigation, the Enforcement Directorate also plans to seek clarifications from Nalini Chidambaram, wife of former Union Finance Minister P. Chidambaram, in the Saradha chit fund scam case. The agencies are widening their ongoing probe into Saradha and other chit fund scandals.
In a written statement to the CBI in April last year, Saradha scam prime accused Sudipta Sen had alleged that over a period of 18 months he had paid over Rs.1 crore to Ms. Chidambaram as fee for legal consultations. As part of the investigations under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), the ED is treating all the assets, movable and immovable, acquired by Sudipta Sen allegedly through misappropriation of funds collected from investors on the pretext of chit fund schemes as “proceeds of crime” and thus attachable under the Act, sources in the ED said here on Monday. Ms. Chidambaram’s name was dragged into the matter by the prime accused, who alleged that Ms. Manoranjana Sinh [estranged wife of Congress leader Matang Sinh] contacted him for selling her Positive Group, a media company, and took him to the chamber of Ms. Chidambaram, her advocate, in Chennai.
