Union Home and Cooperation Minister Amit Shah on July 18 launched a portal to refund the money of around four crore small-time investors of four cooperative societies linked to the Sahara group of companies.
Two Sahara Group entities are being investigated by several agencies including the Enforcement Directorate (ED) for alleged money laundering and foreign exchange rules violations.
Launching the portal on the Ministry’s website, Mr. Shah said that 1.7 crore investors will benefit in first phase and claims upto ₹10,000 will be settled first. The money will be returned to the Aadhaar-linked bank accounts of the investors within 45-days, he said.
The four cooperative societies Sahara Credit Cooperative Society Limited, Saharayn Universal Multipurpose Society Limited, Humara India Credit Cooperative Society limited and Stars Multipurpose Cooperative Society located at Lucknow, Bhopal, Kolkata and Hyderabad respectively were registered under the Multi-State Cooperative Societies Act, 2002 between March 2010 and January 2014.
“There are crores of people whose hard earned money was stuck in the four cooperative societies. As investigation was ordered and properties were attached, the small-time investors were ignored. This is not the first such story. Whenever such a scam takes place, there is a multi-agency seizure and even Lord Brahma cannot lift the restrictions. This led to a feeling of distrust in the cooperative societies,” Mr. Shah said.
He said 70 crore people in the country may not have any assets but they want to contribute to the country’s development and there is no other way than the cooperative movement for them.
“Small investors are hit the most. Take the example of Sahara, case dragged on for many years, several agencies seized their assets. We invited all stakeholders including SEBI, ED, CBI, SFIO. Asked, can we devise a system for the benefit of small investors. All agencies filed a petition in Supreme Court which took a landmark decision that if all agencies agree, a committee under retired SC judge will monitor the reimbursement,” Mr. Shah said.
On March 29, the Supreme Court ordered the refund from Sahara-SEBI refund account to about 10 crore investors of the four cooperative societies. The court was requested that ₹5,000 crore from the Sahara-SEBI Refund Account may be used to pay depositors
“We will begin with ₹5,000 crore, once this is exhausted, we will approach the SC again. There is no scope of any fraud, those who have no invested will not get any kind of refund Many investors may not know how to use the use the portal, they can go to the nearest Common Service Centre and seek assistance,” Mr. Shah said.
The Ministry of Cooperation had invited 100 such investors for the press conference in Delhi.
Santosh Kumar Mishra from Bhilai Chattisgarh, said that he invested more than ₹1 lakh in 2016.
“Our family has been investing in Sahara for the past 40 years. The returns stopped coming in 2017-18 when their assets and bank accounts were frozen. Its offices were shut. We have registered on the portal and hope to get the money back with interest,” Mr. Mishra, a journalist said.
R.K Choudhary, a businessman from Purnea in Bihar said that he invested ₹7 lakh in the cooperative company.
“The investment matured in 2019-20 but we did not receive the returns, the problem was compounded by COVID lockdown also. We have been investors in Sahara for 15-years, father was also an investor. The agents used to come home and return the money, 8-11% interest rate was promised,” Mr. Choudhary said.
Girish Chandra from Prayagraj in Uttar Pradesh said he was supposed to get ₹10,000 in 2022 after the maturity of the funds.
