‘Sahara Group disposed of assets in ‘secret’ cash deals’
New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has alleged that Sahara Group assets, acquired using public deposits, were being disposed of “clandestinely” through cash transactions. The agency filed a chargesheet before a special PMLA court in Kolkata on September 6, naming former Sahara executive director Anil V Abraham and property broker Jitendra Prasad Verma as accused. Both were arrested and remain in judicial custody.
The ED said Abraham and Verma played a “significant role” in selling Sahara properties through collusive deals and cash-based disposals. The money laundering probe stems from nearly 500 FIRs against Sahara entities, including Humara India Credit Cooperative Society Ltd, which al-legedly ran a Ponzi scheme involving “forced redeposits,” denial of maturity payments, and ma-nipulated accounts.
Investigators found Sahara shifted large liabilities across group firms without commercial logic, ultimately concentrating them in four cooperative societies. Despite lacking repayment capacity, the group continued raising deposits, causing liabilities—mainly interest—to swell disproportion-ately against principal collections. The ED claimed “substantial” deposits were diverted to be-nami assets, loans, and personal use, depriving depositors of dues.
Meanwhile, the Supreme Court on September 12 ordered disbursal of Rs 5,000 crore from the over Rs 24,000 crore deposited by Sahara with Sebi to repay cooperative society depositors. The apex court also extended the deadline for distributing this amount from December 31, 2025, to December 31, 2026.
The bench said the order aligns with its March 29, 2023 directive approving a similar Centre ap-plication. The Rs 5,000 crore will be transferred from the Sebi-Sahara refund account to the Cen-tral Registrar of Cooperative Societies, who will release it to verified depositors under the super-vision of former Supreme Court judge R. Subhash Reddy. The transfer must be completed within a week.
