Sebi asks Sahara MF to wind up all schemes

Markets regulator Sebi today asked Sahara Mutual Fund to wind up all its schemes.

All schemes, except one, have to be wound up by April 21, 2018. However, the fund house has been allowed to continue its Sahara Tax Gain Fund' till July 27 but without accepting any new investor. This particular scheme has to be wound up by August 27, 2018.

Sahara group has been engaged in a long-running regulatory and legal battle with Sebi ever since the regulator ordered refund of a massive amount of over Rs 24,000 crore by two Sahara entities.

In July, 2015, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) had cancelled the registration of Sahara MF saying it was no longer "fit and proper" to carry out this business and ordered transfer of its operations to another fund house. It had directed cancellation of Sahara MF's registration on expiry of a six-month period.

Earlier, Sebi had also cancelled the portfolio management licence of a Sahara firm.

Following the Sebi order, Sahara MF had approached Securities Appellate Tribunal (SAT), which granted six weeks to the appellants to approach the Supreme Court. Subsequently, Sahara MF had filed an appeal in the Supreme Court. The appeal was dismissed by the apex court in October 2017.

Therafter, Sebi had instructed Sahara MF to strictly comply with the timelines specified in its July 2015 order.

In its submission to Sebi, Sahara MF said that implementation of the timelines specified in the July order could lead to denial of benefits to the investors of Sahara Tax Gain Fund' and may not be in the interest of investors.

Accordingly, the regulator has modified its earlier order and now asked Sahara MF "to wind up all its schemes (other than Sahara Tax Gain Fund') by April 21, 2018."