SEBI begins repayment process in Sahara case

The refund process follows Supreme Court's order.

May 14, 2013 05:56 pm | Updated November 16, 2021 08:27 pm IST - New Delhi

A file photo of Sahara Group's documents being unloaded at the Stock Holding Corporation of India's custodial office in Navi Mumbai. An estimated 128 trucks with more than 31,000 cartons of papers were delivered to the regulatory authority’s headquarters in Mumbai.

A file photo of Sahara Group's documents being unloaded at the Stock Holding Corporation of India's custodial office in Navi Mumbai. An estimated 128 trucks with more than 31,000 cartons of papers were delivered to the regulatory authority’s headquarters in Mumbai.

In the high profile Sahara case involving over Rs. 24,000 crore raised through ‘various illegalities’, market regulator Sebi has begun the process of refund to individual investors who have been verified by it.

The money is being refunded only in those cases where Sebi has not found any multiplicity during its verification process. Refund for others will have to wait till the next direction from the Supreme Court, which is likely to hear the case on July 17.

The refunds are being made from Rs. 5,120 crore that has been deposited by the Sahara group, which claims to have already returned close to Rs. 20,000 crore to the bondholders of two Sahara firms directly. This claim of direct refunds, which Sahara says were made before the Supreme Court order of August 31, 2012, is yet to be verified independently, sources said.

Even among the lists of investors submitted by Sahara to Sebi, after being directed by the apex court to do so, the regulator has come across numerous multiplicities and other anomalies, sources said.

There are numerous instances of one investor being named at hundreds of places, while there are also cases of multiple addresses for one single investor and hundreds of investors sharing the same address, sources said.

However, the largest number of anomalies suspected by Sebi involves untraceable addresses and other investor details. Sources said the refunds are being made to the genuine investors whose credentials have been verified, although the number of such cases is so very small when compared to initial claims of about 3 crore bondholders from whom two Sahara firms had raised over Rs. 24,000 crore.

The refunds, if any, to the ‘genuine’ investors finding multiple mentions in Saharas’ list would be made after further probe into these details and a subsequent direction from the Supreme Court in this regard, as Sebi suspects that there might be some manipulation on the part of the companies.

Sebi has already written to Enforcement Directorate, RBI, and other government agencies to look into possible violations of rules by Sahara in this matter, including any money laundering activities through fictitious entities.

However, the regulator is going ahead with the process of refunding the money to genuine individual investors, sources said.

During the last hearing of Supreme Court in this case, Sebi’s counsel Arvind Datar submitted that “the money so far deposited by Sahara be permitted to be refunded to the genuine investors, with interest, after verifying the genuineness of the documents,” as per the court order of May 8. To this, the apex court had said that “Sebi may do so“.

Sebi has also filed a contempt petition against Sahara, accusing them of not following court directions, while it has also sought orders for arrest of group chief Subrata Roy and his debarment from leaving the country. These matters are also likely to be heard by the court on July 17.

Heavy administrative costs

Sebi is already believed to have incurred huge costs, including initial expenses of about Rs. 56 crore for putting in place storage, scanning and repayment systems, for the humongous task of facilitating Rs. 24,000—crore refund to bondholders of two Sahara firms after verifying their credentials, for which Sahara has to clear the bills.

Sebi had contracted Stock Holding Corporation of India (SHCIL) for the work relating to storage, digitisation and scanning of investor documents and for creation of a database. This contract alone was worth Rs. 25.97 crore. Besides, another contract of Rs. 29.88 crore was given to UTI Infrastructure Technology and Services for the work relating to redemption related activities in this case.

The Supreme Court has also appointed a retired judge to oversee the matter at a monthly remuneration of Rs. five lakh in addition to travelling, accommodation and other expenses, all of which are borne by Sebi and recoverable from Sahara.

Sahara group claims that it has already repaid a vast majority of the investors and its total outstanding liability towards the bondholders would be much less than Rs. 5,120 crore given to Sebi towards the refund process.

Truckload of documents

After Sahara firms were told by the Supreme Court to hand over the investor documents to Sebi, the group sent 128 trucks with more than 31,000 cartons of papers to the regulatory authority’s headquarters in Mumbai.

Finding it impossible to store them at any of its offices, Sebi decided to keep them at a warehouse of SHCIL Projects Ltd, a subsidiary of SHCIL.

In its order dated August 31, 2012, the Supreme Court had allowed Sebi to engage investigators, other experts and supporting staff for investor verification and the refund processes. The court had also ruled that all these expenses would be borne by Sahara and be paid to Sebi.

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