In a fresh blow to Sahara Group and its beleaguered boss Subrata Roy, the market regulator, Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi), has said that the company needs to pay Rs 37,000 crore debenture money with interest and that earlier it had wrongly calculated the total refund amount.
Also Read: Sebi finds large-scale mismatch in Sahara papers
This makes an additional payment burden of Rs 13,000 crore to the group, which had earlier estimated to pay around Rs 24,000 crore of refund. The original amount that was raised through the bond issue was around Rs 17,000 crore, thereafter an interest was levied which made it to Rs 24,000 crore. However, Sebi has levied a further interest, considering the delay in payment.
The Sahara counsel this morning had submitted a proposal saying that it can deposit substantial amount with Sebi, while seeking an early release of Subrata Roy, who is detained in Tihar jail. The Supreme Court had asked the market regulator to reply on the Sahara’s money refund proposal.
The Sahara group has offered to make an upfront payment of Rs 2,500 crore to Sebi. The company said it was ready to refund and would deposit money with Sebi in five equal installments by July 2015. The company’s counsels said that Sahara was ready to liquidate assets and would use the entire sales proceeds to repay investors.
However, Sebi lawyers objected to Sahara’s repayment proposal. The apex court, too, said that Sahara’s first installment must be ‘attractive’.
The SC will hear the plea later today.
Roy, who was arrested and sent to jail on March 4 amid high drama, has been accused of not refunding over Rs 24,000 crore to investors in bond schemes that the market regulator had termed illegal.
The court had said the Sahara chief would remain in jail till the next hearing on March 11, unless he came up with “a concrete offer”.
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