Even sons did not come to the funeral
New Delhi: Sahara Shri Subrata Roy passed away. The world has seen his brilliance while alive. Not only Amitabh Bachchan but the entire Bollywood danced at his son’s wedding in Lucknow. All the big leaders had arrived. In those days, Sahara was at its peak. Apart from financial business, media channels, sponsors of the Indian cricket team, and airlines had established a small town like Aamby Valley. Now all these have sunk or are on the verge of closure. Even his sons living abroad did not attend the funeral. Most of the stars of Bollywood or cricket did not even perform the formality of paying tribute.
Sahara’s basic function was to deposit people’s money and return it with interest
Sahara’s basic work was to deposit people’s money and return it with interest. It had the license of RNBC i.e. Residul Non Banking Company. This work was going well because people never came back to the streets on a large scale to ask for money. Sahara’s difficulties increased when she opened other businesses. One source of money for new business was people’s deposits. Sahara had to invest 80 rupees out of every 100 rupees of deposits in government bonds and the remaining 20 rupees could be invested wherever the company wanted. These new businesses are not able to make money, be it airlines, hotels, or media businesses. Due to this, Sahara’s name kept on growing but money kept on sinking.
Sahara’s risky business also has a touch of politics in it
There was also a tinge of politics in Sahara’s risky business. Subrata Roy had claimed ten years ago that his appeal to Sonia Gandhi not to become the Prime Minister in 2004 was the root of all the problems. Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s government unexpectedly lost the Lok Sabha elections. The government was going to be formed under the leadership of Congress. At that time Subrata Roy had made a public appeal to Sonia Gandhi that because she was born in Italy, she should not become the Prime Minister of the country. However, Sonia herself later rejected the post of Prime Minister.
Now call it a coincidence or an experiment, the Sahara collapsed in the next ten years. The Reserve Bank started investigating the Sahara. Sahara was told that the entire Rs 100 of the deposit would have to be invested in government bonds. In 2008, the Reserve Bank banned Sahara from taking new deposits and asked it to close all business by 2015. Sahara could somehow escape by obeying this order. Another thief found a way to raise funds.
To raise money in the stock market, any company has to get permission from SEBI. Sahara bypassed him and collected Rs 25 thousand crores from the market. SEBI reached the Supreme Court. The court asked Sahara to return the money to the investors. Sahara Shree was sent to jail in a contempt case. Sahara deposited Rs 15 thousand crores in the SEBI fund. After this, the support could not rise. Now Sahara Shree is gone.
What will happen to Sahara’s depositors?
Now a lot of news is being published about what will happen to the depositors of Sahara. The answer to this is in one line only those who invested the money are missing. On the request of SEBI, the Supreme Court has deposited Rs 15 thousand crore from Sahara. By adding interest it has now become Rs 25 thousand crores. The court has formed a committee to return the money to these investors. You know till now only Rs 138 crore has been returned because no one is coming to collect the money. Seeing this, the Cooperative Ministry of the Central Government has taken out Rs 5 thousand crore out of Rs 25 thousand crore by asking the Supreme Court. Sahara had also raised money through cooperative societies. Out of these, the government has started a scheme to give Rs 10,000 per depositor. In this too, till now 33 lakh people have come to ask for money. The central government had told the Parliament that Rs 1 lakh crore of 13 crore people is being spent on support. The biggest question is who are these 13 crore people who do not want their money back or whether these people even exist or not? Now after the demise of Sahara Shree, the answer to this question will probably never be found as to whose money is invested in Sahara?
