The Kolkata zonal office of the directorate of enforcement (ED) has provisionally attached 1,023 acres of land worth about Rs1,538 crore from across 16 cities in a sweeping move against the Sahara group, marking a significant escalation in the probe into alleged financial fraud and money laundering.
The attached properties, owned by Sahara Prime City Ltd, were allegedly acquired using diverted investor funds through benami transactions. The seizure, carried out under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002, spans properties in cities across India, valued at 2016 circle rates.
The locations and area of land attached are as follows:
1. Anand (Gujarat) – 22.8 acres
2. Bhubaneswar (Odisha) – 2.76 acres
3. Sindhudurg (Maharashtra) – 30.4 acres
4. Hubli-Dharwad (Karnataka) – 123.5 acres
5. Jaipur (Rajasthan) – 61.7 acres
6. Jammu (Jammu & Kashmir) – 115.1 acres
7. Mysore (Karnataka) – 73.8 acres
8. Roorkee (Uttarakhand) – 51.3 acres
9. Shimoga (Karnataka) – 29.9 acres
10. Solapur (Maharashtra) – 125.5 acres
11. Lalitpur (Uttar Pradesh) – 6.63 acres
12. Lucknow (Uttar Pradesh) – 107.6 acres
13. Behrampur (Odisha) – 2.4 acres
14. Bikaner Bulk (Rajasthan) – 168.5 acres
15. Bikaner-II (Rajasthan) – 80 acres
16. Moradabad (Uttar Pradesh) – 21.6 acres
ED initiated the probe following multiple first information reports (FIRs) registered by police in Odisha, Bihar, and Rajasthan against Humara India Credit Co-operative Society Ltd (HICCSL) and others. Over 500 FIRs have been filed against Sahara group entities, with more than 300 pertaining to scheduled offences under the PMLA.
According to ED, the Sahara group ran a large-scale Ponzi scheme through multiple cooperative societies and corporate arms, including Sahara Credit Cooperative Society Ltd (SCCSL), Saharayn Universal Multipurpose Cooperative Society (SUMCS), Stars Multipurpose Cooperative Society Ltd (SMCSL), and others. The group is accused of duping depositors with promises of high returns while siphoning funds to create benami assets and finance an extravagant lifestyle.
Depositors were allegedly coerced into reinvesting their maturity amounts, often without consent, and manipulated accounting was used to falsely reflect repayments. Fresh deposits were continually solicited, despite outstanding dues.
This latest action follows a prior provisional attachment of 707 acres of land in Amby Valley near Lonavala in Maharashtra, worth around Rs1,460 crore, as part of the same investigation. According to ED, this land was purchased in benami names using funds allegedly diverted from various Sahara group entities.
In February this year, the Indian government announced that Rs2,025.75 crore has been disbursed to 1.16mn (million) depositors of the Sahara group of cooperative societies as of 28 January 2025. It includes depositors of SCCSL, Saharayan Universal Multipurpose Society, HICCSL and SMCSL, Amit Shah, the Union minister of cooperation, informed the Lok Sabha.
The ongoing refund process follows a Supreme Court order dated 29 March 2023 in connection with an interlocutory application filed by the ministry of cooperation in case WP (C) No.191/2022 (Pinak Pani Mohanty vs Union of India & Others). The Court directed that Rs5,000 crore be transferred from the 'Sahara-SEBI Refund Account' to the central registrar of cooperative societies (CRCS) for distribution among legitimate depositors.
The disbursement is being carried out under the supervision of justice R Subhash Reddy, a former judge of the Supreme Court and assisted by advocate Gaurav Agarwal who has been appointed as amicus curiae. The process ensures that funds reach eligible depositors securely and transparently, the government says.
Moneylife Foundation has been tracking the troubles faced by investors of Sahara's various cooperative societies and has also hosted a Telegram group for aggrieved investors to coordinate and collectively find solutions to their problems. The group, which was formed during the pandemic, has over 600 members who regularly post about their experiences and share updates whenever one of them receives a refund. (Read:
Sahara CRCS Refund Portal: A Year of Delays, Many Still Waiting for Payout)
In 2023, the Supreme Court ordered a portion of the funds (Rs5,000 crore) retrieved by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) to be transferred to the Union ministry of cooperation to facilitate refunds to the investors. The apex court had ruled that the Rs5,000 crore should be paid to the legitimate depositors of the Sahara group of cooperative societies as soon as possible, but no later than nine months from the date of the ruling. Any remaining funds would then have to be transferred back to the Sahara-SEBI refund account.
