Sahara accuses Sebi of lackadaisical approach

Sahara on Monday alleged that after nine months of depositing Rs 5,120 crore with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi), the market regulator had distributed only Rs 1.67 lakh to investors. The apex court had on August 31 year directed the two firms of Sahara Group, Sahara India Real Estate Corp (SIREC) and Sahara India Housing Investment Corp (SHIC), to deposit Rs 24,000 crore with Sebi. Of this, 5,120 crore was to be deposited immediately, Rs 10,000 crore in the first week of January and the rest in the first week of February. Counsel Rajeev Dhavan said Sebi had examined 628 of the more than 30-million application forms of the optionally fully-convertible debentures holders given by Sahara. He said in respect of the 21,253 notices sent by Sebi to investors the regulator had alleged that in most cases, there was no response, or the investors could not be traced. He added in a short span of 50 days, Sahara had given an affidavit and know-your-customer documents covering almost 50 per cent of the said investors accounts. Dhavan said despite repeated requests, Sebi refused to accept the documents.

SIREC and SHIC, with Sahara chief Subrata Roy, are facing contempt proceedings in the court for not obeying its orders of August 31 last year, to refund the money invested by investors in the two companies.