Sahara hits back at Sebi chief over refunds - Times of India

The author has posted comments on this articleTNN | Apr 5, 2013, 04.29AM IST A day after Sebi chairman U K Sinha indirectly voiced doubts over Sahara's claims that it had returned about Rs 20,000 crore to people in cash since most of them didn't have a bank account, the Lucknow-based group hit back at the regulator terming Sinha's statement as "irresponsible". The group said in a statement on Thursday that it had repeatedly written to Sebi and others, detailing that its investors were mainly small investors most of whom lived in small towns and villages, many of which don't have banking facilities. Calling Sebi a 'rich man's' body, it accused the regulator of lacking in understanding of poor investors. Detailing the profile of its investors, the statement said that of its 3.07 crore investors in the two Sahara group real estate companies, about 1.33 crore investors had invested up to Rs 5,000 each, while about 88 lakh investors had contributed between Rs 5,000 and Rs 10,000. It said another 42 lakh contributed between Rs 10,000 and Rs 15,000, and about 36 lakh had invested between Rs 15,000 and Rs 20,000. Payments of up to Rs 20,000 (including interest) was in cash and that was as per the country's law, it said. The group also said that contrary to Sebi chief's claims that the money was paid in four months, the fact was that the payments were made over five months. "It should also be clear that 90% of the amount in both the companies have come from investors investing up to Rs 20,000. So any logical and unbiased mind shall be convinced that there cannot be any case of fictitious, fake investors in Sahara," the statement said. "Such a responsible person (as Sebi chairman) should not give irresponsible statements that how and why Rs 20,000 crore repayments were made in four months and 90% was paid in cash," it further said. The group also said that Sebi never asked these questions to Sahara but went public with its doubts. The group also said that for the last one year, the Sebi chief has declined to meet Subrata Roy, the chief of Sahara group, and also did not accept Roy's invitation for a live TV debate on this issue. The group also said that a few years ago when RBI had asked it to stop its dep osit taking activities, and refund all the money to its depositors, the banking regulator had given the group seven years to do the same. And the money was returned to all the depositors without a single default, and within the RBI stipulated time line. Drawing a parallel, the group said that in case of Golden Forest, which too had collected money from investors and was asked by the court to refund all the money, not a single rupee has been paid to the company's investors in the last 8-9 years. "Investors also know that there were dozens of other similar companies against which Sebi had taken action but not a single investor has received even one rupee till now," the statement said. via Business - Google News http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=t&fd=R&usg=AFQjCNEK6b_bFFU3yDnopkKTNDQ2HQqNxA&url=http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/business/india-business/Sahara-hits-back-at-Sebi-chief-over-refunds/articleshow/19391795.cms

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