Sahara’s defiance against the market regulator SEBI seems to have opened the can of worms for the company. After the Securities Appellate Tribunal (SAT), it is the Ministry of Corporate Affairs that has decided to look into the company. Sources told Track2Realty that the ministry has asked the Registrar of Companies (RoC) to inspect the books of accounts of two Sahara group companies — Sahara India Real Estate Corporation (now known as Sahara Commodity Services Corporation Ltd) and Sahara Housing Investment Corporation — for alleged violation of norms of private placement.
The RoC will conduct an inspection of the companies under section 209 A of the Companies Act, which authorizes the RoC to inspect the books of accounts and other papers of the company in the premises of the company and the company is obliged to produce all such documents to the inspecting officials.
“Not only have we ordered an enquiry in the books of accounts of Sahara companies, we have also asked RoCs across the country to conduct scrutiny of books of accounts of all such companies which have raised money through preferential allotment or private placement. That has been done under section 234 of the Companies Act,” said the source.
Under section 234, RoC can call for any information from the company it deems fit.
Earlier, the SAT had on October 18 asked the two companies to return the money raised through Optionally Fully Convertible Debentures (OFCD) to investors within six weeks. The Sahara entities had raised nearly Rs.24,029 crore through the OFCD scheme.
