The Supreme Court allowed on Wednesday a petition filed by the Central government, seeking allocation of Rs 5,000 crore out of Rs 24,000 crore deposited by the Sahara group with market regulator Sebi to repay more than 1.1 crore investors, who had put their life savings in four multi-state cooperative societies run by the Sahara Group.
The Bench of Justice M.R. Shah and Justice C.T. Ravikumar directed the Union government to disburse the amount to the depositors, who were duped by the Sahara group of cooperative societies.
It added that the entire process would be monitored by former Supreme Court judge, Justice R. Subhash Reddy.
The Union of India had filed an application on a petition by one Pinak Pani Mohanty, seeking directions to repay the depositors, who had invested in several chit fund companies and Sahara credit firms.
The application filed by the Central government sought money from the SEBI-Sahara Sahara-Sebi escrow account that was formed after the in August 2012 verdict of the Apex Court.
The top court of the country had directed in its judgment, two companies of Sahara Group, namely the Sahara India Real Estate Corporation Limited (SIRECL) and the Sahara Housing India Corporation Limited (SHICL), to refund the investors.