The dosa continues to be too hot at the centre for the diners. At the end of a three-day court-room drama last week, the regulator is left red-faced as Sahara seems to have got everything it wanted. A crystal-clear August 31 order of the apex court to refund the outstanding liability of Rs 24,029 crore to 29.6 million investors with 15 per cent interest has been squandered away by the regulator. November 30 has come and gone. New deadlines are out now. The gross violation of Supreme Court orders are glossed over? What happens to the contempt petition? Confusion, that dangerous investor-killer, is back.
Sahara seems to have got away with everything. Defeat was absolute as the Sebi counsel Arvind Datar could not even present his objections. With Sahara even the monumental seems insufficient, which is why the arm-chair efforts taken by Sebi now appear ant-sized.
I have reasons to believe that Sebi knew of the conversions of optionally fully convertible debenture money into other group plans such as Q-shop as early as September. Did it make any efforts to stop this? Issuing newspaper advertisements, floating tenders and filing petitions are fine. But as a law enforcement authority, is the regulator not expected to intervene and bring to end such blatant violations as and when these were happening? Could the agents who were doing this have not been apprehended?
What was Sebi expecting? That people who have little respect for Supreme Court orders will be scared of newspaper advertisements?
Sahara has been meeting Sebi advertisement for advertisement. In a fresh round of advertisements, Sahara is now claiming even the Rs 5,120 crore it offered to pay includes a Rs 2,500 crore buffer amount. So, instead of Rs 24,029 plus interest you get a Rs 2,620 crore as final settlement.
Sebi will fight it legally. What is the point? A protracted legal fight is exactly what Sahara wants. It has collected enough money from Uttar Pradesh’s Mungeri Lals to hire all of New Delhi’s top lawyers for the next decade. To avoid which, the previous chief justice had ordered a time-bound hearing of the case in tribunals and courts across the country.
Sahara is claiming that it has refunded over Rs 20,000 crore. But with whose permission did it refund these by modes other than those described in Sebi whole time member Abraham’s June 2011 order? Which assets did they dilute to refund these thousands of crores? According to affidavits before SAT, as on April 1, 2011, Sahara India Real Estate had invested Rs 6,430 crore in real estate and companies in real estate business. Development rights, advances to joint ventures and other current assets accounted for Rs 15,937 crore. Similarly, Sahara Housing Invest had Rs 1,865 crore in realty investments and Rs 6,027 crore in development rights, etc. The question is: which of these assets were diluted for the repayment? Did anyone buy them?
Kareena Kapoor playing Rosy, the prostitute in Talaash, tells Inspector Surjan, “Kya saab, lagta hai mujhe aapko kanoon sikhana padega. Dhanda gheir kanooni hai. Hum log toh ginti mein nahin aatein. Jo hai nahi hain, woh gaayab kaise ho sakta.(Sir, looks like I have to teach you law. The profession is illegal. Therefore, we don’t exist. If you don’t exist, how can you disappear?).”