Sebi makes fresh bid to find Sahara investors

In a fresh effort to locate Sahara investors eligible for refunds, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has asked bondholders for their claims by next month, along with necessary proof of investments.

The latest exercise follows a similar attempt by Sebi in August, wherein the eligible bondholders were asked to give their refund claims to the regulator by September 30.

Sebi said it received 4,900 claims during that exercise from the bondholders of Sahara India Real Estate Corp and Sahara Housing Investment Corp, which had raised Rs 24,000 crore from about thirty million investors.

The Supreme Court had asked Sebi to facilitate refund to the bondholders of the two companies, in connection with a long-running dispute involving raising about Rs 24,000 crore from investors across the country.

Sahara maintains it has already repaid 93 per cent of the dues directly to the bondholders concerned and the remaining amount was only about Rs 2,500 crore. It deposited Rs 5,120 crore to Sebi in December 2012 towards the investor refunds as per SC orders.