Sahara obstructed Amby Valley project auction, alleges SEBI

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) on 10 October moved a contempt petition in the Supreme Court against business conglomerate Sahara Group for alleged obstruction in the auction of the Amby Valley city project in Pune.

The market regulator said Sahara had not paid money to all the investors, while the latter claimed they had almost paid more than 75 per cent of the money.

Earlier last month, the Bombay High Court's Office of Official Liquidator put up Sahara Group's Amby Valley city project in Pune for public auction for a reserve price of Rs. 37,392 crore, four days after the Supreme Court declined Sahara chief Subrata Roy's plea to put the auction on hold. The apex court had also directed Roy to deposit Rs. 1,500 crore in the SEBI-Sahara account by September 7.

The SEBI alleged that its Sahara Chief Subrata Roy Sahara had failed to comply with the 2012 court order directing him to return investors' money accounting to more than Rs. 20,000 crore with 15 per cent interest that his two companies - Sahara India Real Estate Corp Ltd. and the Sahara Housing Finance Corp. Ltd. - had raised through optionally fully convertible debentures (OFCD) in 2007 and 2008.

The Sahara group vehemently denied the allegations levied on them by the SEBI and claimed to have paid more than 80 per cent of the dues to the bondholders, but the market regulator disputed that more than Rs. 9,000 crore worth of dues existed. 

-ANI