Statement from Sahara's lawyer - Mr. Gautam Awasthi

Pertaining to the today’s hearing of Sahara SEBI case there are few points on which we would like to request you to kindly clarify to your esteemed readers/audience
1.             Hon'ble Supreme Court has directed to prepare and submit a plan of the sale of 86 properties of Sahara of which title deeds are already submitted by Sahara. We would also like to clarify that order is not on the other properties of Sahara and neither these 86 properties includes the foreign properties of Sahara nor Aamby Valley City nor Sahara Star hotel.

2.             Hon’ble Supreme Court directed SEBI that in process of selling properties it has to take inputs and consultation with Sahara.

3.             Meanwhile, today, Sahara has completed the payment of Rs. 5,000 Cr cash component and only Rs. 5,000 Cr bank guarantee component is left. Senior counsel of Sahara, Mr. Kapil Sibal has submitted that since the worth of Sahara’s 86 properties whose original documents are with SEBI for long, is of worth of more than Rs. 40,000 crores and is more than Rs. 5,000 crores of the required Bank Guarantee. The SEBI to get the properties valued and if the admitted valuation is more than Rs. 5000 crore and was contended by Sahara that it should be treated as security and Mr. Subrata Roy Sahara and two Sahara directors be released. To this Hon’ble Court has directed SEBI to work on this proposition

Gautam Awasthi, Advocate

Counsel for Sahara

Statement from Sahara's lawyer - Mr. Gautam Awasthi

Pertaining to the today’s hearing of Sahara SEBI case there are few points on which we would like to request you to kindly clarify to your esteemed readers/audience
1.             Hon'ble Supreme Court has directed to prepare and submit a plan of the sale of 86 properties of Sahara of which title deeds are already submitted by Sahara. We would also like to clarify that order is not on the other properties of Sahara and neither these 86 properties includes the foreign properties of Sahara nor Aamby Valley City nor Sahara Star hotel.

2.             Hon’ble Supreme Court directed SEBI that in process of selling properties it has to take inputs and consultation with Sahara.

3.             Meanwhile, today, Sahara has completed the payment of Rs. 5,000 Cr cash component and only Rs. 5,000 Cr bank guarantee component is left. Senior counsel of Sahara, Mr. Kapil Sibal has submitted that since the worth of Sahara’s 86 properties whose original documents are with SEBI for long, is of worth of more than Rs. 40,000 crores and is more than Rs. 5,000 crores of the required Bank Guarantee. The SEBI to get the properties valued and if the admitted valuation is more than Rs. 5000 crore and was contended by Sahara that it should be treated as security and Mr. Subrata Roy Sahara and two Sahara directors be released. To this Hon’ble Court has directed SEBI to work on this proposition

Gautam Awasthi, Advocate

Counsel for Sahara

Saharasri Subrata Roy Sahara’s book – ‘Life Mantras’ remains in top 5 for the last 4 weeks in the bestseller chart of Nielsen

Lucknow, March 21, 2016: ‘Life Mantras’ – An exhaustive and thought provoking treatise by Shri Subrata Roy Sahara, Managing Worker & Chairman, Sahara India Pariwar, on his life-time experiences, observations as well as his insights on the day-to-day issues of people, has been in the top 5 in the bestseller chart of Neilsen for 4 consecutive weeks. According to Nielsen, bestseller list, last week, ‘Life Mantras’ topped the chart by ranking number one and has become bestseller in the non-fiction category of Nielsen BookScan. The book ‘Life Mantras’ is published by Rupa Publications.
The Nielsen BookScan service, which happens to be the world’s largest continuous book sales tracking service operating in India, the UK, Ireland, Australia, US, South Africa, New Zealand, Italy, Brazil and Spain, collects total transaction data at the point of sale directly from the tills and dispatch systems of all major book retailers. Nielsen collects data from online and offline booksellers including Bookadda, Crosswords, Connexion, DC Books, Flipkart, Indiatimes, Infibeam, Landmark, Landmarketail, Capital Book Depot, Rediff, Odyssey, Pageturners, TV18 Homeshopping, WH Smith India, ebay, Mahindra Retail, Relaince Timeout, Snapdeal, etc.
Within a month of its launch, the book - ‘Life Mantras’ has walked upright in the chart to acquire the status of a Bestseller. In his book, the author, Shri Subrata Roy Sahara, has elaborately detailed out the various psychological and emotional aspects of life vis-à-vis the basic instincts inherent in all human beings so as to bring forth the true beauty of the multi-dimensional human life.
The book ‘Life Mantras’ is the first among the ‘Thoughts from Tihar’ trilogy series and is available at all leading book stores across India as well as abroad. It is also available at all leading online portals and even in the form of an e-book. The other forthcoming books of the aforesaid trilogy series are 'Think with Me - How to make our country ideal’ and 'Reflections from Tihar - A book on Tihar Jail’. These other two books of the trilogy series will be released soon.

For further information please contact:
Ghulam Zeeshan
Corporate Communications
Sahara India Pariwar
Mob: 9792982666; Off.: 0522 - 2724545


Criticise nation but logically

In the wake of JNU incident, The Nationalism & Freedom of speech debate has been tossed around a lot. Sahara Chief Subrata Roy accurately points out the chinks in the armour of the debate, giving the issue a realistic reflection.



The Subrata Roy case: What’s happening to the billionaire who couldn’t get away?

The nationwide bust up over how a certain liquor baron made bankers kiss dirt, walking away with bagful of cash through a VIP channel, possibly to an undisclosed city in Europe, is making headlines and triggering breaking news almost every day now.
But questions need to be raised about the curious case of billionaire Subrata Roy who paid loads of cash to the market regulator and last week completed two years behind bars in Delhi's maximum security prison.
Roy, who recently wrote a tome on his life experiences, is now called a philosophical author by many .
Jokes apart, someone seriously needs to scrutinise the case again, especially at the way the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) handled it and the way Sahara group demonstrated considerable resilience. A few days ago, a handful of Sahara employees protested the delay in payment of salaries; they were in their undergarments. The idea was to be visible  on television.
But what's happening in the case?
On 31 August, 2012, the apex court had asked SEBI to return money to Sahara's investors. In the last 40 months, it has been able to pay Rs 50 crores. The Mumbai-based market regulator advertised four times in as many as 144 newspapers, inviting demands for repayment. Worse, the fourth advertisement said it was the last opportunity for raising demand for repayment.
Does that mean that - under any circumstances - SEBI won't be able to pay over Rs 100 crores? And what has it got in its kitty? It has received a whopping Rs 12,000 crores and even earned interests on FDs. Also, SEBI has the property papers of Sahara's land bank worth Rs 40,000 crore in its custody. There are chances it will have another Rs 5,800 crore ( Rs 800 crore cash and Rs 5,000 crore bank guarantee) by the time Roy and his two directors walk out of the prison gates. Sahara, which sought time for raising the stipulated cash from its assets for SEBI, was given a 45-day extension that ended in November 2015. The group claimed it had five "solid offers" for its properties.
The slugfest between the market regulator and Sahara has been described as corporate India's best known samudra manthan. SEBI disputes Sahara's claim that it has paid 95 per cent of its investors from whom it had collected Rs 24,000 crores through optionally fully convertible debentures (OFCD) in 2009-10, after the written permission from 2 Registrars of Companies. The Supreme Court however, upheld SEBI's plea and directed that Saharas' investors have to be refunded the money along with interest through SEBI.
The billion dollar question that needs to be raised is when will SEBI verify the authenticity of these investors? If four advertisements have failed, doesn't it become obligatory for SEBI to verify Sahara's repayment claim? After all, the Supreme Court says the the final decision on the issue of unpaid investors lies with SEBI. The market regulator, which said in January 2013 that it wanted to hire a verification agency, has reportedly failed to organise one. So who will help ascertain the genuineness of bondholders in the Sahara case.
Look at the way the events have progressed. SEBI has not given any reason for withholding its notice inviting the tenders. The first tender to seek a verification agency was floated on 2 November, 2012. SEBI asking for applications by 22 November, 2012. It did not happen and so the deadline was extended to 21 December, 2012, and again extended till 15 January, 2013. After the expiry of this last deadline, SEBI decided to withhold the tender notice.

It is now March 2016. Someone must ask questions, either in court or on televised debates. Otherwise, the billionaire, will have no option but to write the second sequel of his planned trilogy.