Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): Economic Offences Wing (EOW) has found in its investigations that the proceeds from the sale of land assets of Sahara India Group of companies in Madhya Pradesh were not deposited into the SEBI-Sahara Refund Account to repay investors and instead were diverted.
The agency has also unearthed that Sahara Group’s three large land parcels - around 300 acres- valued around ₹900 crore in Maksi (Bhopal), Katni and Jabalpur were sold at a throwaway price of ₹90 crore to companies linked to a politician.
The Sahara group had purchased the land to develop Sahara cities.
EOW is investigating the case and so far three officials of the Sahara Group have been questioned by the agency. Now, the agency is planning to summon Sahara's top financial officer Corporate Commercial Manager for further questioning.
Earlier, top officials of Sahara Group in their statement to the EOW admitted to the EOW that 110 acres of land in Maksi (Bhopal) , the market value of which was ₹400 crores, was sold for just ₹48 crores.
The company also violated the directives of the Supreme Court as the proceeds from Sahara land assets sale were to be deposited in the joint Sahara-SEBI Refund Account in Mumbai. However, Sahara officials allegedly deposited the money into the account of a credit cooperative society of the Sahara Group instead.
The top officials of Sahara Real Estate's finance department have also admitted that the land in Jabalpur and Katni having a combined market value of around ₹400 crores was sold for ₹42 crores of which only ₹31 crores was deposited in Sahara-SEBI joint account. The said officials failed to account for the remaining amount.
Earlier, the agency had questioned Tapas Das Basak, the then authorized officer of Sahara Real Estate, regarding the undervalued sale of land. Basak had admitted to signing signing documents for the Jabalpur and Katni land sales but claimed he was unaware of whether the proceeds were deposited in the SEBI-Sahara account.
Recently, EOW has called Sahara Real Estate's finance division chief manager Irfan Ullah and deputy chief manager Rudranath Yadav for questioning. The duo accepted that the company had transferred the amount received from the land sales into account of another company of the group. The two also shared other information related to the land deal in Bhopal.
