The corporate affairs ministry has started examining the charges levelled by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) against two Sahara group companies over fund raising without proper approvals.
In a public notice issued two weeks ago, Sebi had said the fully convertible debentures (OFCDs) of Sahara India Real Estate and Sahara Housing Investment were not issued in compliance with the Companies Act, 1956, and the Sebi norms relating to public issue.
A few days ago, the Reserve Bank of India had also cautioned investors against Sahara group’s move to mobilise funds under the generic name of Sahara Pariwar and Sahara India Pariwar.
The apex bank had clarified that only three of the Sahara group companies were registered with it and two of these were not authorised to accept money from the public.
Corporate affairs ministry officials confirmed the development, but declined to provide details of its investigation.
In an interim order on November 24, Sebi had restrained the two companies and their promoters and directors, including Subrata Roy Sahara, from mobilising funds through OFCDs till further directions, on the basis of complaints that alleged these companies had been issuing OFCDs to the public for many months, with varying face values and maturity periods extending up to 15 years.
Further, annual accounts filed with the Registrar of Companies revealed that Sahara India Real Estate had already raised Rs 4,843.37 crore from investors as on June 30, 2009.
The two Sahara entities had challenged the Sebi order in the Allahabad High Court (HC), which on December 13 stayed the Sebi order, with liberty to proceed with the inquiry.
Sebi filed a special leave petition before the Supreme Court against the Allahabad HC order. The apex court held that Sebi would be entitled to call for any information which it deemed fit, including the names of the investors who had invested in OFCDs in the course of its inquiry.
