After the death of Sahara Group chief Subrata Roy, Rs 25,000 crore lying in the account of capital market regulator SEBI has again become a topic of discussion. This is the same money which was recovered from Subrata Roy on behalf of SEBI. Roy, who was ill for a long time, died in Mumbai on Tuesday night. He was 75 years old. Roy had to fight many regulatory and legal battles regarding his group companies. These also include allegations of bypassing rules in Ponzi schemes. However, his group has always rejected these allegations.
SEBI had given orders
In 2011, SEBI had sanctioned two Sahara Group companies, Sahara India Real Estate Corporation Limited (SIREL) and Sahara Housing Investment Corporation Limited (SHICL), about Rs 3 crore through certain bonds, alternatively known as Fully Convertible Bonds (OFCDs). Ordered to return the money collected from investors. SEBI had said in the order that both the companies had raised funds by violating its rules and regulations.
Supreme Court had given the order
After a long legal battle, the Supreme Court on August 31, 2012 upheld SEBI’s directions and asked both the companies to return the money collected from investors with 15 percent interest. After this, Sahara was asked to deposit an estimated Rs 24,000 crore with SEBI to return the money to the investors. However, the group continued to say that it has already paid more than 95 percent of the investors directly.
25 thousand crore rupees in the account
According to the annual report, the Securities and Exchange Board of India returned Rs 138.07 crore to investors of two Sahara Group companies in 11 years. Meanwhile, the amount deposited in bank accounts specially opened for repayment has increased to more than Rs 25,000 crore. Most of the bondholders of the two Sahara companies did not make any claims regarding this and the total amount increased by about Rs 7 lakh in the last financial year 2022-23, while the balance in the SEBI-Sahara repayment accounts increased by Rs 1,087 crore during this period.
How much money was returned?
According to the annual report, SEBI received 19,650 applications related to 53,687 accounts till March 31, 2023. Of these, a total amount of Rs 138.07 crore was returned for 17,526 applications related to 48,326 accounts, which also includes interest amount of Rs 67.98 crore. The remaining applications were closed as they could not be traced through the information provided by both the Sahara Group companies. In the last updated information, SEBI had said that till March 31, 2022, the total amount related to 17,526 applications was Rs 138 crore. SEBI said that the total amount deposited in banks till March 31, 2023 is about Rs 25,163 crore.
