MUMBAI: Ambikanand Sahay, the man who was overseeing the various TV and print medium products from the Sahara stable, has put in his papers.

Sahay, who as Sahara India Media and Entertainment senior vice-president shaped a recent restructuring of the news businesses, announced his departure in an internal meeting with all the bureau heads last evening, according to company sources.

However, the reason for Sahay's sudden exit, at a time when new channels were being launched and distribution of existing ones being beefed up, remains unclear. Sahay's leaving is even more curious since he was said to be close to Sahara India promoter Subroto Roy.

During his term, some regional centric channels like Sahara Samay Uttranchal and Sahara Samay Bihar had been launched successfully. The proposed National Capital Region channel, which started test signals during Sahay's stint, is now gearing up for a formal launch.

Sahay was associated with Sahara Media and Entertainment for about a year and came in before Arup Ghosh quit as the head of the Sahara Samay Rashtriya, the national news channel. Since then several people have left the Sahara Samay family, while others from channels like Aaj Tak and NDTV have joined too in senior positions.

Sahay's professional tenure has included a long stint as The Times of India's resident editor at Lucknow. he was also associated with The Statesman and Times News Network .

As reported earlier on Indiantelevision.com, the group was contemplating to inject an additional Rs 2 billion in its media business, spread over a period of 18-24 months.

The industry buzz is that Sahara's television news division is likely to witness some more departures and a reshuffle in the existing responsibilties of the current divisional heads.

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