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Sahara Investors Flood Social Media Seeking Refund of Deposits
Moneylife Digital Team 05 October 2020
Economy & Nation
Complaints from depositors of credit cooperative societies of Sahara India are mounting with many of them taking to Twitter and social media to post pictures of protests and crowds across the country. The societies include: the Sahara Credit Cooperative Society Ltd, the Saharayn Universal Multipurpose Coop Society Ltd, the Humara India Credit Coop Society Ltd and the Stars Multipurpose Cooperative Society.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
While many investors are flooding social media with messages for refund, their number is nowhere near the total eight to nine crore investors estimated by the central registrar of cooperative societies (CRCS). Vivek Aggarwal, joint secretary, cooperatives and central registrar wrote to the ministry of corporate affairs (MCA) that four multi-state cooperative societies of the controversial Sahara group had raised an astounding Rs86,673 crore over 10 years (from 2010) from several crore depositors and was unable to make repayments. (Read: Sahara’s Mysterious Riches: Rs1,10,000 Crore Raised in 10 Years despite Intense Scrutiny of Government, Supreme Court and SEBI)
 
Last month, one investor sent a letter seeking intervention from chief justice Sharad Bobde, while making very serious allegations against officials. The letter names many officials and makes serious allegations.
 
In the letter the investor says, "Sahara do not have any business, which is making a profit, hence chances of any repayment do not arise. Delay in action will only facilitate Subrata Roy Sahara and his family to syphon off the balance money to undisclosed locations, which will make the life of poor depositors miserable. All concerned should be immediately arrested and a massive drive of investigation should start without wasting any more time."
 
 
Talking about Subrata Roy Sahara, the investors alleges, "He (Mr Roy) is living life like a king on poor people's money. He never discloses his actual liabilities in any of the advertisement and gives a sweeping statement that he has assets three times the liability of group. It is factually incorrect."
 
According to the investor, while Sahara group claims to employ over 12 lakh people, it has not deposited its contribution in the employee provident fund (PF) and state insurance (ESI) since 2014. 
 
 
The investor also raised doubts on repayment claims made by Mr Roy through a 10-page letter. He says, "In my opinion, and I am confident also, all this money shown as refund was redeposited accruing interest on it and shown in books as payment to depositors."
 
 
"In fact, there was no payment made. They have refunded some of the trouble making depositors from the new deposits or additional deposits. Balance amount from new deposits has been spent on running the organisation and syphoned off to undisclosed destinations," the investor has alleged in his letter to the chief justice Bobde. 
 
In December 2018, the Lok Sabha was informed that Sahara group subsidiary Sahara Q Shop Unique Products Range Ltd was being probed by the Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO) following complaints by 744 people. 
 
Replying to a question whether investments in other Sahara group companies, like Sahara Q Shop are covered by the Supreme Court's 31 August 2012 order, Pon Radhakrishnan, minister of state for finance, replied in the negative. He said, "The Supreme Court directed Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) to make refunds to only those investors who invested in optionally fully convertible debentures (OFCDs) of Sahara India Real Estate Corp Ltd (SIRECL) and Sahara Housing Investment Corp Ltd (SHICL)."
 
In February this year, the ministry of finance has said that the Sahara group, which allegedly duped its investors, has so far deposited Rs15,448.67 crore into the 'SEBI-Sahara Refund' account. 
 
SEBI has said that two Sahara Group companies—SIRECL and SHICL—had raised money aggregating Rs19,400.87 crore and Rs6,380.50 crore, respectively, from around 3.07 crore subscribers or investors by issuing OFCD without filing offer documents with SEBI and in violation of its regulations.
 
"As per the Supreme Court order, Sahara Group has deposited Rs15,448.67 crore to 'SEBI-Sahara Refund' account as on 1 February 2020. Further, a cheque of Rs41.59 crore in respect of a property situated at Vellore was produced before the Supreme Court on 24 January 2020, where the Supreme Court directed that the same shall be accepted by SEBI 'without prejudice'.
 
"The said cheque has been presented to the bank for depositing to the 'SEBI-Sahara Refund' account, but has not yet been realised as on date," Anurag Thakur, minister of state for finance told the Lok Sabha in a written reply.
 
Mr Thakur, who is also the minister of state for corporate affairs, said market regulator SEBI has received 19,560 applications for refund, involving 53,361 original bond certificates or pass books for an aggregate principal amount of Rs81.30 crore.
 
 SEBI made refunds with respect to 14,146 applications involving 39,499 original bond certificates or pass books for an aggregate amount of Rs109.86 crore, including the principal amounting to Rs58.52 crore and interest of Rs51.34 crore.
 
"The refund to investors is subject to verification of their applications and approval of Justice (Retd) BN Agarwal in terms of the order of the Supreme Court," Mr Thakur said in his reply.
 
In January 2020, the apex court exempted the Sahara group chief Subrata Roy and two other directors from personal appearance till 'further orders' in a case pertaining to the alleged failure in depositing Rs25,700 crore in the SEBI-Sahara account.
 
In January last year, the apex court had directed Mr Roy and two other directors, Ravi Shankar Dubey and Ashok Roy Choudhary, to make personal appearance after observing that Sahara's payback process did not look promising, as it did not comply with the direction to deposit Rs25,700 crore.
 
Comments
katkamnaresh467
4 years ago
Please sir my money
Reply
puthiyashri
4 years ago
#ourmoneyback
Reply
ssbh.dceo
4 years ago
WHO IS AWAKE? THE POOR PEOPLE WHO HANE INVESTED THE MONEY. AND NOBODY IS WITH THEM TO HELP REFUND.
Reply
RVR
4 years ago
SEBI & RBI are asleep, as usual.
Reply
maheshpurabiya1122
4 years ago
Aadarsh aur Sahara chhor hai aur modi sakar kuch nahi karti
Reply
khhk1628
4 years ago
I have nothing to do with Sahara Group, however This is all bullshit news, gathered people for media to create a propoganda, I have seen Sahara pay back Doc's of at least 40 people working overseas who had totally forgotten about their Investments & were surprised to see a Sahara 'To Claim Letter' reach their home in India.
If Sahara CEO wanted to run away, he could have, long time back. Fuss is totally different than is being shown.
Is there any harm if the poor-man is investing daily savings INR-10 for a good returns, instead for INR-2L
Reply
viratbharat1
4 years ago
if sahara is really paying its investers pl try to pay my 2 BESAHARA bonds taken from Maghar got fedup from Sahara and its agents
Name of the investor
SADHANA TRIPATHI
Father’s Name of the investor
S/O BRIJ NARAYAN DUBEY W/O VINOD TRIPATHI
Address of the investor
VILLAGE-DORO PO-BASIYAKHOR KHAJNI GORAKHPUR
Mobile no.
9450671212 9336402005
Company(SHICL/SIRECL)
control no-
SIRECL ADOBE 10172902392 30/12/2009 12000
SIRECL ADOBE 101709313501 30/12/2009 13000
Reply
rajendrachauhan8664
4 years ago
सहारा इंडिया में हमारा 10 लाख फसा है सरकार हमारी मदद करे
Reply
Meenal Mamdani
4 years ago
It is astounding that these individuals deposited money in any kind of scheme operated by Sahara. Sahara has been in the news since 2014 and Subroto Roy was in Tihar Jail for more than a year.
If people don't investigate before investing their money, they should not expect the govt to step in now to get their money back.
Reply
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