SEBI Unreasonably Holding Rs 25,000 Crore Investors Money, Alleges Sahara India

SEBI has admitted that it has repaid Rs. 129 Crore to Sahara's investors, while the money deposited by Sahara is Rs. 23,191 Crore, including interest, as of 31st March 2021.

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The Sahara India on Friday alleged that market regulator SEBI is unreasonably holding Rs. 25,000 Crore money of Sahara and its investors.

In its Annual Report released on 4th August 2021, SEBI has admitted that it has repaid Rs. 129 Crore to Sahara's investors, while the money deposited by Sahara is Rs. 23,191 Crore, including interest, as of 31st March 2021.

After giving four rounds of advertisements in 154 newspapers in the last nine years across the country, SEBI has repaid only Rs 129 Crore to the esteemed investors of Sahara.

In its last advertisement published in April 2018, SEBI made it clear that it would not entertain any further claims received after July 2018, meaning no more claimants will be paid.

"This means that Sahara's entire Rs. 25,000 Crores deposited by it is unreasonably held by SEBI and should be returned to Sahara," said a Sahara statement.

Sahara has given all the original documents about its three crore investors to Sebi nine years back for verification, and as per the directives of the Supreme Court, this amount of Rs. 25,000 Crore will eventually come back to Sahara.

"This is unfortunate and unacceptable that Sebi is holding on Rs. 25,000 Crores deposited by Sahara and doing nothing," said the statement.

According to Sahara, this huge amount of money is lying unutilized, idle in the banks, which hurts the interest of Sahara as a business organization and impeding the economic growth of our country, especially in these testing times of economic slowdown.

Sahara has always built its businesses by productively channelizing human capital spread across India and giving employment and work at people's doorstep. In this way, Sahara provides bread and butter to more than 14 lakh people in their villages and towns. It is the country's second-largest human capital after Indian Railways, said Sahara.

The Rs. 25,000 crores, which SEBI is holding unreasonably, could have been used by the organization to generate more employment and work and helped the country and, therefore, its economy, claimed Sahara.

A mail sent to SEBI seeking responses on the Sahara claims remained unanswered until the publication of this article.