Politics to TV channels: Matang Sinh’s changing roles, fortunes

After interrogation by the ED earlier this week, Sinh is learnt to have admitted he took money from Sen and is ready to return it once the amount is settled upon.

Saradha scam isn’t the first controversy Sinh finds himself embroiled in. In 1998, he was in news for being expelled from Congress for allegedly using “unparliamentary” language against party chief Sonia Gandhi on a TV channel. He was upset about not being re-elected to the Upper House the second time. Indeed, before becoming a successful media entrepreneur, Sinh dabbled in politics, beginning with Youth Congress in Assam. He claims to have caught former PM Rajiv Gandhi’s attention, following which he moved to Delhi and later, won the confidence of former PM Narasimha Rao who made him minister of state for parliamentary affairs in 1993.

Two years ago, he made a failed bid to return to the Congress. Somebody who never fought an election and is politically rootless, he still claims to be a staunch Congressman.

His entry into the broadcast business happened through his enterprising, though now estranged wife Manoranjana Sinh. A former journalist, Manoranjana claims to have got the TV licences from the NDA government in 2003. “It were my brains and efforts that made Positiv TV a reality. He became a director in the company thanks to being my husband.” Sinh, on the other hand, claims to be the primary investor in the business and has been running it single-handedly since 2008 when he expelled his wife.

Incidentally, Saradha’s Sen also accused Manoranjana of duping him of Rs 25 crore in return of some shares in Positiv TV. But Manoranjana says the deal never came through.