Sahara India: A probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) was also demanded against Sahara firms and the amount seized by the agency so far during the investigation of the case against the chit-fund companies.
Which can be used to give back to the investors. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, on behalf of the Government of India, appeared on the PIL before a bench of Justices MR Shah and CT Ravikumar for the application filed after a high-level meeting under the ministry along with representatives of 18 other departments and investigative agencies.
This included the Securities Exchange Board of India (SEBI), Serious Fraud Investigation Office, Income Tax, Enforcement Directorate, CBI, Ministry of Corporate Affairs, among others. Then a demand was made to take an amount of Rs 5,000 crore from a fund called SEBI-Sahara Refund Account,
Pinak Pani Mohanty, who earned only Rs 25,000 by selling potato chips, has raised hopes of relief for crores of investors. Pinak Pani Mohanty hails from Odisha. Pinak Pani Mohanty has done what millions of investors had given up on. Actually, the Supreme Court has accepted the petition of the Central Government on March 30.
In which the government had said that out of the total fund of Rs 24,979 crore of Sahara-SEBI (Subrata Roy), Rs 5,000 crore should be given immediately, so that investors’ money can be returned. The Supreme Court has given this direction on an application filed by the Central Government on a PIL filed by Pinak Pani Mohanty. Mohanty sought a direction to refund the money to depositors who had invested in chit fund companies and Sahara Credit Firms (Sahara Group). Now in 9 months the investors will be given back their money.
Battle fought by spending millions
Sharing his struggle with Economic Times, Pinak Pani Mohanty said that he earns Rs 3.15 lakh annually. And it was not easy for a Schedule Caste person to fight this battle. But it was possible with the help of friends. So far, more than Rs 4.80 lakh has been spent on his petition on this. According to Pinak Pani Mohanty, she and her social activist friends have worked to get compensation for the victims of 44 companies since 2015. These include chit fund companies ranging from Sahara to Rose Valley, Sharda and Seashore. Mohanty is also a BJP worker. And he had filed a public interest litigation in January 2022 regarding the Sahara case.
This is the whole matter
Let us tell you that the whole matter started in the year 2009 at the time of Sahara’s OFCD. Sahara scam is mainly related to Sahara India Real Estate Corporation Limited (SIRECL) and Sahara Housing Investment Corporation Limited (SHICL), two companies of Sahara Group. Sahara Prime City, a company of Sahara Group, filed application (DRHP) with SEBI for its IPO. DRHP contains all the important information related to the company. When SEBI studied this DRHP, SEBI found some mistakes in the process of raising money by two companies of Sahara Group. These two companies were SHICL and SIRECL only.
SEBI received two complaints on 25 December 2009 and 4 January 2010. SEBI found that SIRECL and SHICL raised around Rs 24,000 crore through OFCDs from 2 to 2.5 crore investors. On the PIL of Pinak Mohan Mohanty, the Central Government appealed in the Supreme Court to release the money deposited in the escrow account to the investors. After which the Supreme Court has ordered to return Rs 5000 crore. This money is to be returned in 9 months under the supervision of a judge.
