Anil Goswami, who resigned as home secretary after he was asked to do so by the Union Government, brought shame to bureaucrats who are meant to uphold the law. A holdover from the UPA time, he tried to stall the arrest of former Union minister Matang Sinh who was being questioned in connection with the Saradha chit fund scam. Goswami, a 1978-batch IAS officer from the Jammu and Kashmir cadre, was close to Sinh, who was minister of state in Narasimha Rao’s Government in the 90s. Sinh allegedly took Rs 28 crore for selling a television channel, that never went on air, to the Saradha Group chairman Sudipta Sen.
According to reports, Goswami accepted that he had spoken to the CBI chief at the time of Sinh’s arrest and tried to explain “the logic” of making the phone call, but the Home Minister had by then spoken to Prime Minister Narendra Modi who had decided to crack the whip. Goswami has been replaced by rural development secretary LC Goyal, a 1979-batch IAS officer of the Kerala cadre.
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