FILE photo: Sahara group chairman Subrata Roy (C) is escorted by police to a court in Lucknow
The Supreme Court has asked market regulator SEBI to examine Sahara's proposal of refunding crores of rupees to small investors, and give its views by 11.30 am. Sahara submitted the proposal this morning, while asking the court to release its chief Subrata Roy, who has been in Tihar Jail since Tuesday.
Sahara told the court that it wants to deposit a "huge amount" this month and the rest in installments. Sahara has been accused of not repaying over three million investors.
Mr Roy was sent to jail after he failed to convince judges that he was serious about refunding nearly Rs 20,000 crore to investors in bond schemes that have been declared illegal.
The court had said the 65-year-old Sahara boss will remain in jail till the next hearing on March 11, though he could ask for an earlier hearing if he was ready with "a concrete proposal."
Mr Roy calls himself managing worker of Sahara India Pariwar, the largest private sector employer in the country.
In 2012, the group was ordered by court to repay nearly Rs 24,000 crore to three million investors, many of them rural savers.
Sahara says it has repaid most of the money, and its remaining liability is less than the Rs 5,000 crore it has deposited with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI). But the company has been cagey about revealing how it funded the repayments it has allegedly made, and SEBI says the list of recipients lacks credibility.
The court had, on Tuesday, also rejected Sahara's offer of a bank guarantee for Rs. 22,000 crore, while it sold property assets that it claims are worth nearly that much, an estimate rejected by SEBI as vastly exaggerated.
Sahara's financial troubles began in 2008 when it shut operations as India's biggest non-bank deposit-taking firm on orders of the court, which was worried about whether its schemes were sound.