The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has petitioned the Supreme Court to direct Sahara India Pariwar group’s two companies and the group’s chief Subrata Roy to pay Rs 62,600 crore immediately to stay out of jail.
Subrata Roy, chairman of Sahara India Pariwar:
Market regulators said the outstanding liability of the Sahara India Pariwar group’s companies and the chief, Roy, stand at Rs 62,600 crore, including the interest. The liabilities of the tycoon have risen from Rs 25,700 crore, which he was ordered to pay eight years ago.
“It is absolutely wrong demand by SEBI,” Sahara group said in an emailed statement. Sahara’s statement says SEBI has “mischievously” added 15 percent interest and it is a case of double payment as the companies have already paid back the investors.
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The fraud:
The Sahara India Pariwar investor fraud case was of the granting of Optionally Fully Convertible Debentures issued by the two companies of Sahara India Pariwar to which SEBI had claimed its inquisition and objected the authorization of the activity. When Sahara couldn’t give papers or the track of the raised money, Roy was jailed.
The Supreme Court in 2012 ruled that Sahara group companies violated securities laws and rose over $3.5 billion illegally. The companies defended that the money was raised in cash from millions of Indians who could not avail banking facilities.
But SEBI could not trace the investors and Sahara firms failed to pay up the amount.
Story of Subrata Roy on Netflix:
Netflix series Bad Boy Billionaires featured Subrata Roy’s story among the stories of fallen business tycoons in Asia’s third-largest economy and India’s efforts to go after the rich and famous who failed to pay their dues.
Roy was a very well-known and millionaire tycoon who at different times was the owner of an airline, formula one team, cricket team, plush hotels in London and New York, and financial companies. He was jailed for over two years and is currently out on parole since 2016.
As per the SEBI statement, Roy has deposited over Rs 15,000 crore till now. The court has not yet decided when will be the next hearing in the case.
Big shots such as Vijaya Mallya, Nirav Modi, Hansal Mehta, and a few have illegally made money under the nose of the government. While Hansal Mehta was arrested, Mallya and Modi are still out of India’s reach.
