Sahara matter will continue even after Subrata Roy's death: Sebi chief
Sebi chairperson Madhabi Puri Buch was speaking with reporters on the sidelines of a Ficci event in Mumbai.
Sebi chairperson Madhabi Puri Buch said on Thursday that the Sahara matter will continue for the capital markets regulator even after the death of the group's founder, Subrata Roy. Buch was speaking with reporters on the sidelines of a Ficci event in Mumbai.
She said the matter was about an entity's conduct, and it will continue regardless of whether an individual is alive or not.
Roy, the controversial founder of the group, died on Tuesday after a prolonged illness.
Roy was at the centre of a huge controversy and faced multiple regulatory and legal battles in connection with his group firms that were accused of circumventing regulations with Ponzi schemes, allegations the Sahara group always denied.
In November 2010, stock market regulator Sebi asked two entities of Sahara Group not to mobilise funds from equity markets or issuance of any security to the public and restrained Roy from approaching the public to raise money.
In 2014, the Supreme Court ordered the arrest of the Sahara group chief, commonly called ‘Sahara Shri', after he failed to appear before it in a contempt case arising out of a non-refund of more than ₹20,000 crore to investors by two of his companies.
Though he was granted bail, troubles continued for Roy in cases related to his various businesses.
Two Sahara Group companies—Sahara India Real Estate Corporation (SIRECA) and Sahara Housing Investment Corporation—raised funds in 2007-08 through a debenture instrument OFCD.
Later in June 2011, the regulator asked the two group entities to refund money collected from investors through Optionally Fully Convertible Debentures (OFCD) along with the return.
After a long process of appeals and cross-appeals, the Supreme Court ordered in 2012 a refund of deposits of its investors along with 15% interest.
Sahara was eventually asked to deposit an estimated ₹24,000 crore with Sebi for further refund to investors, though the group always maintained it amounted to "double payment" as it had already refunded more than 95% of investors directly.
Once asked for proof of repayment, Roy famously sent across 100 truckloads of documents to Sebi, triggering a unique warehousing crisis for the regulator.
With inputs from PTI
(Edited by : Ajay Vaishnav)
First Published: Nov 16, 2023 1:42 PM IST
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