New Delhi: The long running case of Sahara Group and SEBI took a twist when the Supreme Court of India asked the Sahara Group to hand over the property deeds worth Rs 20,000 to the market regulator Sebi.

Supreme Court directs the Sahara Group to pay deeds in three weeks

The apex court said the group is indulging too much in hide & seek, it can’t trust it anymore. The Court ordered the Sahara group to hand over the deeds in three weeks otherwise; Subrata Roy and other directors will not be allowed to leave the country without prior permission.

Sahara has to handover the property papers to Sebi by November 11 and the SC will take up the case on November 20. The top court had earlier asked both Sahara and Sebi to find a way out to refund Rs 19,000 crore to the investors.

Earlier, two Sahara Group firms- Sahara India Real Estate Corp Ltd  and Sahara India Housing Investment Corp Ltd had raised around Rs 24,000 cr through  convertible debentures (OFCDs) in violation of public issue rules. OFCDs are basically company bonds that can be converted to equity shares.

The Sahara group had earlier agreed to keep its immovable property as security, but Sebi questioned the value of the properties. The Sebi asked the group to sell its property and pay back the money.

In August last year, the SC  had asked the Group to refund Rs 24,000 cr to investors with an interest of 5 pc per annum within three months.

The court was hearing petition filed by the Sebi against the Sahara housing firms, and their directors for not refunding investors’ money on schedule.