Sahara offers Rs 22,500 cr bank guarantees; help to Sebi

New Delhi: Accused of persistent non- compliance, Sahara on Tuesday offered Sebi fresh bank guarantees for Rs 22,500 crore and help in verifying investors including those the group claims to have already refunded.  

Sahara said it can "depute hundreds of competent workers"  to assist Sebi in collating the documents and other  information for verification of documents, a bulk of which it  has already submitted and some more it has offered to submit.   They have further contended that if the verification  process throws out any investor who is not "genuine" or if  there are fictitious accounts, then the group would deposit  the amount attributable to such investors to the Government of  India "in cash through Sebi within a period of 30 days".  

This came on a day when Sahara chief Subrata Roy was  brought by police to appear before the Supreme Court.  

Raising an emotional pitch, the group asked the Supreme  Court to accept the offer "in the best interest of Sahara's  crores of existing investors and to protect the livelihood of  12 lakhs workers/employees".   Reiterating its earlier stand with regard to direct  repayment to a bulk of investors, the group said Sebi has been  asking for more money for the last 15 months despite having  refunded only about Rs 1 crore from the Rs 5,120 crore already  deposited with the regulator.   "Hence, Sebi has balance amount of approximately Rs 5,619  crore (including interest earned amount)," the proposal said.  

Still, it said Saharas propose to furnish bank guarantees  for a total sum of Rs 22,500 crore, while the Sebi can  immediately proceed with sale of properties whose titles have  been already handed over to it by the group.   The step-by-step proposal, consisting of broadly ten  points, further said Sebi would have to stop the sale of  properties once it gets the bank guarantees and the money  collected from such sale would have to returned to Sahara.  

Rejecting Sebi's contention that the documents submitted  by Saharas were "have been hopelessly mixed up", the group  offered to "depute hundreds of competent workers to assist  SEBI in collating the documents/information and verification  of the documents".  

Further, Sebi has been asked to immediately accept all  remaining documents lying with Saharas, which it claimed to  include "original vouchers, original receipts and all other  relevant documents".   The proposal said these documents were "absolute proof"  of all payments to all investors in OFCDs (the bonds through  which two Sahara firms raised over Rs 24,000 crore that were  asked to be refunded), except for am amount of about Rs 2,000  crore.  

According to the Sahara proposal, acceptance of these  documents were very "critical" to ensure implementation of the  Supreme Court court orders.   Further, the proposal states that the bank guarantees can  be invoked by Sebi only if Sahara fails to deposit the amount  (found to be linked to fictitious accounts) within a period of  30 days, or if the group firms fail to repay the existing OFCD  investors.   The proposal also seeks withdrawal of all restrictions  and attachments imposed on the companies and individuals  through various orders passed by Sebi and the Supreme Court.  

In cases where Sebi has completed the verification, it  has sought reduction of amounts attributable to such investors  along with interest paid from the bank guarantee.   It also calls for Sebi to refund the excess amount to  Saharas and return the original bank guarantees upon  completion of the verification process for fictitious accounts  and payments to the outstanding OFCD holders.