Sebi refunds Rs 106 cr to Sahara investors

More than six years after initiating a Supreme Court-monitored recovery and refund process for an estimated Rs 25,000 crore collected by Sahara group from nearly three crore investors, regulator Sebi has received less than 20,000 claims while two-third of them have been refunded a total amount of Rs 106.10 crore. The refunded amount includes Rs 56.86 crore of principal and Rs 49.24 crore paid as interest for 13,543 refund claims made by bondholders of two Sahara group firms, as per the latest update from the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi). The refund has been made from a special account created by Sebi, to which Sahara was asked to deposit the money even as the group has maintained that it had directly refunded more than 95 per cent of investors. Sebi said an aggregate amount of Rs 15,438 crore has been recovered so far from Sahara through various direction of the Supreme Court and the attachment orders issued by the regulator in 2013. The regulator said Rs 20,173 crore (the recovered amount along with the interest earned on them after providing for refunds made to the investors) was deposited in nationalised banks as on March 31, 2019 as per the Supreme Court order. Giving update in its latest annual report, Sebi said it had received 19,547 applications involving 53,233 accounts as on March 31, 2019, and made refunds with respect to 13,543 applications involving 38,143 accounts for an aggregate amount of Rs 106.10 crore.