NEW DELHI : The Supreme Court pulled up Sahara group for its “obnoxious” conduct in the debentures case and said it may summon Registrar of companies or Central Bureau of Investigation officers to enquire about the source of over Rs 230 bln that the company claims to have refunded to investors.
The court had on previous hearing asked the Sahara group to furnish the details of source of money but had not stated the same in its order. The court expressed displeasure over the fact that the company did not chose to give the details and instead wrote a letter to SEBI saying the source of money was “not relevant”.
The court passed an order today directing the company to submit by Jan 23, the details of source of money purportedly refunded and posted the case for next hearing on Jan 28.
“Can some one from your (Sahara) company not tell where this money came from? You say source of thousands of crores of rupees is irrelevant? One letter after another. It’s obnoxious. Very unfair. These are limited companies. What is the RoC (Registrar of Companies) doing?” the bench of Justice K.S. Radhakrishnan and Justice J.S. Khehar said. It added, “If you are not ready to disclose the source of money, we will summon the RoC, summon CBI officers and direct enquiries. Don’t think courts are helpless. We will ensure our orders are complied.”
Meanwhile, the court also granted more time to the Securities and Exchange Board of India to scrutinise the property deeds submitted by Sahara group as security for the over 200 bln rupees collected by Sahara through debentures in 2008-09. -Cogencis
