The sleuths have sought explanation as to why they have invested in the company and their bank account details.
Giving a twist to the curious case of missing high net worth investors of the beleaguered Sahara Group, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has sought details of financial transactions from many investors.
The sleuths have sought explanation as to why they have invested in the company and their bank account details.
"We have written to those investors who deposited their money with Sahara India Real Estate Corp Ltd (SIRECL) and the Sahara Housing Investment Corp Ltd (SHICL), both of which are currently under probe," said an ED official.
During the investigation, the agency found that about 95% transactions between group companies and investors were in cash.
The cash receipts and bills were seized during the searches by the enforcement sleuths at Sahara group headquarters in Lucknow in November 2015.
"It was clear that some transactions were done through banking channels. Rest were all in cash, in violation of the Know-Your-Company (KYC) norms, as per the guidelines prescribed by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI)," said a source.
"Sahara, in its statement to Sebi, had claimed that the money transaction was done in the ratio of 60/40 (that is 60% in cash and 40% in cheques). But that was not the case, at least on the ground," he said.
The investors have responded to queries raised by the ED, he added.
"The data is huge, we are still in the process of examining details of every bank account," said another ED source.
There are 3 crore investors in the two group companies against which they were issued securities. More than Rs 24,000 crore were moblised. The group has come under scanner for not complying with Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) norms in 2010.
A Sahara spokesperson had replied to a dna query in November 2015, regarding the transaction mode with investors. "We never said that in OFCD, 60% cheques and 40% cash transactions occurred. Cash payments are high because our esteemed investors are mostly from the lower strata of society and our average deposit is Rs 8,000. So most of the payments are below Rs 20,000. Hence, majority of payments are in cash."
In the entire Sahara affair, the fact that very few investors have so far come forward to lodge a complaint have made many legal experts believe that all transactions were fictitious and involved money- laundering. Out of the claimed 3 crore investors, so far, Sebi had received only 4,900 refund claims.
The Sahara investigation certainly gained momentum after Vandana Bhargava revealed the details of 4,500 plus bank accounts of Sahara India during her statement to ED.
Bhargava was the only director allowed to assist Sebi to deposit Rs 10,000 crore and bail out the group's jailed chief Subrata Roy.
The group, facing charges of money-laundering, had been under the lens of investigating agencies for long, until Sebi finally nailed its chief Subrata Roy in March 2014 and got, along with two directors, Ravi Shankar Dubey and Ashok Roy Choudhary, behind bars.
The apex court granted conditional bail to Roy and others for a deposit of Rs 10,000 crore. The case has since been an unprecedented one as never before such a huge amount was sought for bail.
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