Sahara challenges SEBI

Sahara India Pariwar publicised an advertisement in the dailies on 17th March, 2013 challenging Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) to have an open debate on television with Sahara chief Subrata Roy. 

The advertisement stated with 'Enough is Enough (Bas Ab Bahut Hua)' tagline, "I hereby challenge and invite the Chairman or members or Executive Directors of Sebi for a live debate with me on television. I want to make people know that they are intentionally trying to defame us. As a corporate regulator, Sebi is misusing its powers to malign the reputation of Sahara India Pariwar." It further asked for a ten day notice to organise an appropriate channel and 60 minutes of air-time to facilitate the debate. 

SEBI had moved the Supreme Court on Friday asking for the detention of Subrata Roy Sahara, chairman of the Sahara Group, and directors Ravi Shankar Dubey and Ashok Roy Choudhary. The regulator had also asked that the passports of the three as well as another director Vandana Bhargava, to be deposited in the court and they are not allowed to leave the country without permission. An earlier SEBI order on February 13 had ordered attachment of assets of two group companies - Sahara Housing Investment Corporation (SHICL) and Sahara India Real Estate Corporation (SIRECL) - as well as the four persons mentioned above. SC had ordered Sahara group to repay around Rs 24,000 crore along with the interest to its more that 30-million investors. SC took the decision after believing in SEBI's view that the Sahara group had dishonestly raised the money. According to SEBI, Sahara group also lied after depositing only Rs 5,120 crore saying that its investors have already cashed rest of the amount. However, Sahara had to deposit the money with SEBI to felicitate the refund which they didn't do. SEBI accused Sahara of lying because they failed to provide enough documents that could have proved that such a refund had actually taken place.

Source: http://cablequest.org/news/national-news/item/1901-sahara-challenges-sebi.html