The Centre on Wednesday said that money will be returned to 10 crore investors of four cooperative societies of the Sahara group within nine months following the Supreme Court order directing the transfer of ₹5,000 crore from the Sahara-SEBI refund account to the central registrar.
It also added that Justice Reddy, the assistance of Gaurav Agarwal, will complete the payment process in nine months, according to the news agency ANI.
Earlier in the day, Supreme Court allowed a plea by the Centre seeking allocation of ₹5,000 crore, out of ₹24,000 crore deposited by the Sahara group with market regulator Sebi, to repay depositors of the cooperative societies.
Sahara Group’s four societies- Sahara Credit Cooperative Society Limited, Saharayan Universal Multipurpose Society Limited, Humara India Credit Cooperative Society Limited, and Stars Multipurpose Cooperative Society Limited, were registered under the Multi-State Cooperative Societies Act, 2002 between March 2010 and January 2014.
A large number of complaints were received from across the country regarding non-payment of deposits to the depositors of these cooperative societies. Notices were issued to the societies and a hearing was held before the Central Registrar due to the complaints.
During the course of hearings, the Central Registrar directed the societies to pay the unpaid amount to the investors and stopped the societies from taking fresh deposits and renewing existing ones, ANI reported.
“The Ministry of Cooperation digitized about 1.22 lakh claims received from the depositors and sent them to these committees for payment, but the committees did not take necessary action in this regard. Every day a large number of applications are being received from the depositors of these societies for payment of their investments,” the ministry said.
