File picture of Subrata Roy.
A controversy over land assets may have been the final trigger that led to the arrest of
Subrata Roy, the head of the embattled Sahara Group, who will be produced before the Supreme Court today. (
Who is Subrata Roy? 10-point cheat-sheet)
After repeated attempts to get Sahara to refund Rs 19,000 crores to millions of small investors, the court had asked Sahara to deposit title documents of land assets, which it then asked market regulator SEBI to sell and make the refunds. (
Sahara asked to submit property title deeds worth Rs. 20,000 crore to Sebi by Supreme Court)
Sahara submitted title deeds of land assets worth about Rs 40000 crores, mostly in and around Mumbai. Documents accessed by NDTV suggest that SEBI has found multiple defects in these, making it impossible to sell the land.
It has allegedly found that in all cases, Sahara has not provided the chain of ownership documents and so the title deeds cannot be verified.
SEBI has also allegedly found that Sahara has overvalued land in some cases. For instance, Sahara had submitted title deeds for some parcels of land in its luxury township Aamby Valley, outside Mumbai, valued at Rs 10,000 crores. But SEBI says that this valuation was done on the basis of a township project, not the present barren land.
SEBI also says that Aamby Valley is under multiple litigation and lacks green clearances from the state Pollution Control Board.
The regulator has also questioned Sahara's valuation of a plot of land in Versova, Mumbai. Sahara puts the value at Rs 20,000 crore. SEBI says based on sale documents, the value of the land is only Rs 118 crores.
Similarly, it has questioned the valuation of 67 other plots of land, saying that in some cases, land purchased in 2012-13 has been valued 16 times over the price of purchase.
Sahara sources say SEBI and Sahara used the same valuation agency, so there should not be such a discrepancy.
On February 21 this year, Sahara's lawyers admitted in the Supreme Court that the land assets they had submitted could not be sold because they belong to other entities.
This irked the court, which asked Subrata Roy to appear before it. His failure to do so led them to issue the arrest warrant, and to his eventual arrest in Lucknow last Friday. (
Read here)
Sahara has alleged that SEBI is dragging its feet in repaying investors, even though Sahara has paid Rs 5000 crores to the regulator.
SEBI accepts that it has only been able to repay Rs 1 crore from this, but says it has only received 3500 requests for refunds. Of this, the regulator says, only 560 cases have been found fit for repayment.
SEBI also claims that Sahara has still not given details to support its claim that it has refunded Rs 19,000 crores to investors, alleging that the company changes its position repeatedly.