Calcutta, Feb. 17: The Enforcement Directorate (ED), probing the Saradha money trail, grilled Riniki Bhuyan Sarma, wife of former Assam minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, for over three hours here this afternoon.

She was questioned on the Rs 2.74 crore which Saradha chief Sudipta Sen had invested in her news channel group, Pride East Entertainments Private Ltd, for airing advertisements on Saradha.

Riniki is the chairman-cum-managing director of Pride East Entertainments, which, ED insiders said, had received the amount from Sen for releasing advertisements on Saradha Realty and a Guwahati-based biscuit company where Saradha had invested.

Senior officers in the central investigating agency said they were yet to receive enough supporting documents from Riniki to feel convinced that these advertisements were really aired.

In his purported letter to the CBI in April 2013, Sen had claimed that Himanta had taken 'not less than Rs 3 crore over the last one-and-a-half years'. Sen also wrote that this amount was to be realised for paying the creditors of 'Bengal area'.

'The company, which owns the news channel (News Live), had received the amount (Rs 2.74 crore) in different instalments over three financial years - 2010-2011, 2011-12 and 2012-13,' said a senior ED official. 'We have asked her to furnish documents showing that these ads were aired.' If the documents fail to reveal that the advertisements were really aired, ED officials said the chargesheet which the agency is planning to submit by March detailing how 'proceeds of crime' were parked in different companies and who were the beneficiaries would mention this.

Preliminary investigations reveal that Pride East Entertainments had entered into the deal with Sen for the advertisements.

'Riniki has 16 per cent share in this company,' said an ED official. 'We questioned her since she is the chairman-cum-managing director of the company.'

Pride East Entertainments launched News Live on January 21, 2008, and later launched three regional satellite channels - Rang, Ramdhenu and North East Live.

This is the second time that the ED had summoned Riniki. The CBI had grilled her on Sunday on the financial deals of the company. The CBI had raided the residence of Himanta and the office of News Live in Guwahati in August last year.

'We will question Riniki again,' said an ED official.

'It is also important to understand the type of advertisements that were meant to be aired because it amounts to inducing investors in a company that was in the deposit-collection business illegally.'

Riniki was today on a daylong fast for Shivaratri. Lawyer Devajit Saikia, former additional advocate-general of Assam, accompanied her to the ED office at the CGO Complex in Salt Lake here.

Coming out of the ED office, Riniki claimed they had only taken advertisements from Saradha Realty and that she had explained this to the ED officials. She said she submitted certain documents to the investigating agency. 'We are cooperating with the investigation,' she said.

An official source told The Telegraph that Pride East Entertainments had received nearly Rs 2 crore from Saradha Group.

'Between January and March, 2011, the company had received around Rs 44.5 lakh through eight cheques, each ranging between Rs 5 lakh and Rs 10 lakh. The company had also received Rs 10 lakh from Saradha Realty India Ltd as donation in 2011 to organise the Great Guwahati Run on October 30 in memory of the October 30, 2008 serial blast victims,' the source said.

'She accepted receiving money as advertisement revenue for advertisements of Saradha Group on TV channels owned by Pride East. She, however, could not furnish enough documentary proof to substantiate her claim,' the source said.

Additional reporting by our Guwahati bureau