Thursday, 16 December 2021 | PNS | Dehradun
Workers and investors of Sahara protested against the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) at the Press Club here on Wednesday. The protesters said that they have been earning from Sahara India for the past 25-30 years but due to the embargo imposed over the entire Sahara Group by the Supreme Court over the past eight years owing to the Sahara-SEBI dispute, a situation of delay in payments has arisen which has majorly impacted their earnings.
They said that over the past eight years, SEBI has repaid Rs 125 crore with interest, despite taking out four rounds of advertisements in regional and national newspapers. In response to SEBI’s advertisement published on March 26, 2018, repayment applications were received from 19,598 investors. In response, SEBI repaid 16,663 applications which came to, with interest, Rs 125 crore. This in itself shows that all investors didn’t approach SEBI for repayment as they had apparently already received their dues, averred the protesters.
When SEBI has no pending repayment left for any investor at present, it should submit an affidavit that it has no investors awaiting repayments, they said. Legal adviser Rakesh Joshi said, “This is a serious problem which will reach the Central government.” He added that this is the beginning of the protest and they have a long way to go if their demands are not met.
