Nalini Chidambaram and Saradha chit fund scam: What's the connection?

With the Trinamool Congress facing the heat for the possible involvement of its MPs in the Saradha chit fund scam, it has sought to shift the limelight to the Congress and the Finance Minister’s wife.

The TMC has accused P Chidambaram’s wife Nalini, a private lawyer, and Union minister Abu Hasem Khan Choudhury of links with arrested Saradha chief Sudipta Sen.

Sudipta Sen, Chairman of the scandal-ridden Saradha Group, who was arrested three days ago, has said in a purported letter to CBI that politicians, journalists and lawyers had blackmailed him and taken money assuring him protection. Those named by him included TMC MPs Srinjoy Bose and Kunal Ghosh, who have denied the charges, a Congress minister from Assam and Nalini Chidambaram, wife of Finance Minister P Chidambaram.

[caption id=“attachment_730507” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  The TMC also alleged that Nalini charged Rs one crore to draft an agreement and questioned why she was paid such a ‘generous’ fee. Screen grab/ibnlive[/caption]

More from Politics

Is Shashi Tharoor’s breakup with Congress inevitable? ‘Naxalism will end in India by March 2026’: Amit Shah at CRPF Raising Day parade

Without mentioning her name, the TMC put up a series of questions on its official website under the headline - “Why was a Chennai lady lawyer fixing deals in the Saradha scam? Congress minister must clarify”.

The TMC also alleged that Nalini charged Rs one crore to draft an agreement and questioned why she was paid such a ‘generous’ fee.

The innuendos on the website end with the comment: “Caesar’s wife must be above suspicion. This rule applies for the Trinamool in Kolkata. Does it apply for the Congress in New Delhi and Chennai?”

The letter which Sen is alleged to have written, claims that Manoranjana Sinh, former wife of Congress politician Matang Sinh, took him to Chennai to meet Nalini, who “pressurised” him to invest Rs 42 crore in a Northeast TV channel.

Sen purportedly tells the CBI that Nalini “herself prepared the agreement” and “fixed her consultancy… on which account more than Rs 1 (One) Crores have been given to her”.

However, according to PTI, sources close to Nalini rejected the allegation. Instead, the sources say, she advised the channel against accepting funds from Saradha Group.

According to CNN-IBN sources, Nalini had only represented Manoranjana in her professional capacity and she had been engaged as a senior counsel to appear on behalf of Manoranjana and her husband in a corporate case filed by her before the Company Law Board (CLB) against M/4 Positive TV Ltd.

Nalini’s client Manoranjana Sinh has also stepped in to defend her. In a video message on YouTube, she said Nalini advised her and her husband against accepting Saradha funds for her channel.

“Mr Sudipta Sen according to me is a white collar criminal who is trying to create a smoke screen to confuse people by taking all kinds of names and misrepresenting facts in hope that it will divert the attention from the main crime that he has committed. He claims that he was pressured by Mrs Chidambaram to invest in this project. The whole idea is to show her in poor light as she happens to be the wife of a senior UPA minister. This letter that he is written now is completely baseless untrue and done with a delibrate motive to shift the blame from himself,” Manoranjana said.

Meanwhile, the Congress hit back at the Trinamool Congress, for accusing the Finance Minister’s wife.

The party dismissed the allegations against its leaders and also demanded, along with the CPI(M), a CBI enquiry into the murky affairs of the chit fund that has left thousands of small investors in the state without their life savings.

Congress MP and MoS for Urban Development Deepa Dasmunsi told journalists on Thursday, “We demand a CBI enquiry so that the truth comes out and I will like to say with absolute certainty that no Congress leader’s name will come out.”

Accusing the Trinamool government of shying away from taking responsibility for the scam in which the poor had been “looted” of their hard-earned money, she said Trinamool leaders had been seen at several Saradha group programmes promoting the organisation.

Raising doubts over the Chief Minister’s proposal to set up a Rs 500-crore relief fund for small and medium depositors, She said that it is ‘impossible’ to raise the money through the imposition of a 10 per cent tax on cigarettes.