Saradha scam: Assam ex-minister Himanta Biswa Sarma appears before CBI

The CBI, which is probing the Saradha chit fund scandal, had in August this year searched the residence of Sarma in Guwahati apart from also visiting the office of NewsLive, a Guwahati-based television news channel which is headed by the former minister’s wife Riniki Bhuyan Sarma.

Interestingly, while another former Assam minister and senior Congress leader Anjan Dutta had appeared before the CBI in Kolkata on Monday after admitting that he had received summons from the agency, Himanta Biswa Sarma had chosen to remain on a denial mode until he arrived in the CBI office on Wednesday morning.

Sarma, who was once a very powerful minister in the Congress government in Assam headed by chief minister Tarun Gogoi, had resigned after making an unsuccessful attempt to oust Gogoi in July this year. Debajit Saikia, additional advocate general of the Assam government, who is also said to be very close to ex-minister Sarma, had appeared before the CBI in Kolkata on Monday, raising many eyebrows, especially when the Assam government has nothing directly to do with the CBI’s Saradha scam investigations.

A former Assam DGP Sankar Barua, whose house was also searched in August this year in connection with the Saradha scam probe, had recently committed suicide. Guwahati-based noted singer and filmmaker Sadananda Gogoi, who is said to be close to both Barua and Sarma, on the other hand is still in jail after he was arrested by the CBI in the same case on September 12.