Sahara files 5 more appeals in SAT

Two of these will be for Sebi's refusal to accept documents, Sahara directors to file other three appeals separately

The Sahara group today filed five more appeals before the Securities Appellate Tribunal (SAT) against the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi).

While two of these appeals related to the rejection of documents by Sebi, three separate appeals were filed by three Sahara directors---Ravi Shankar Dubey, Vandana Bhargava and Ashok Roy Choudhary.

On February 13, Sebi had ordered the attachment of the assets of Sahara group companies, owing to irregularities in fund raising by Sahara Housing Investment Corporation and Sahara India Real Estate Corporation. The Sahara group counsel said as Sahara chief Subrata Roy was not a director in either of these companies, he had no personal liability.

The counsel also said Sebi had no powers to attach properties. For this, it had to approach a judicial magistrate, the counsel added. Such attachments were only valid for a month, the lawyers argued, adding only bank accounts could be attached, not movable, immovable properties and demat accounts.

The Sahara counsel said in its order, Sebi had wrongly stated Roy owned 70 per cent stake in the two companies. Though Roy had 70 per cent stake earlier, this later fell to just 0.03 per cent, the counsel said.

The next hearing on the case is scheduled for March 26 in Delhi.

CLARIFICATION
This report was modified to incorporate a correction in the version of the story uploaded earlier. We regret the inadvertent error.