The Times Group had launched Ei Samay – its flagship Bengal daily with an average current circulation of around 1.7 lakh copies – in 2012. But last week, it was taken over by a company that was barely a month old. And the face of the acquisition was West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s close aide and Kolkata-based lawyer Sanjay Basu.
A day after the acquisition, Basu put up a statement on LinkedIn, stating that he along with Anurag Choudhary of Himadri Speciality Chemical Ltd had acquired the daily. “We few have come together to acquire the Ei Samay newspaper and digital IPs today,” he said.
