Journalism of Courage
The Supreme Court on Tuesday raised questions on how Sahara transacted thousands of crores in cash with its sister firms for purportedly refunding Rs 20,000 crore to its investors after market regulator Sebi alleged that no bank statement was furnished by the group to show the money trail.
A bench of justices KS Radhakrishnan and JS Khehar asked Sebi to find out whether the company law and RBI guidelines allow cash transactions of such large amounts of money.
“I think there is some RBI regulation under which transaction beyond Rs 10 lakh has to be done through cheque,” the bench said asking the market regulator to find out about the RBI rules.
At the beginning of the proceedings, senior advocate Arvind Dattar, appearing for Sebi, contended that the group has not supplied the bank statements of the its firms to show the trail of money which it claims to have refunded to investors as the company said that all transactions were done in cash.
“They say everything was paid in cash so there is no bank statement. It says that Rs 16,000 crore cash was paid by the Sahara Credit Cooperative Society to Sahara India in May-June 2012,” he said.
Senior advocate Ram Jethmalani, appearing for the group, contended that he has not gone through the documents of the company filed in the court and sought time to respond to Sebi’s allegation.
