Sahara Challenges SEBI to TV Debate

The Sahara ad that ran in Hindustan Times, March 17.

Subrata Roy, chairman of the multi-billion-dollar Sahara group, wants to open a new–and novel–front in his long-running tussle with India’s securities regulator: live television.
In full-page newspaper ads in major Indian newspapers on Sunday and Monday, Mr. Roy challenged the chairman of the Securities and Exchange Board of India and other senior officials to a live television debate to “let people know their wrong intent and deed.”
Mr. Roy asked SEBI for a date convenient to them, and to give him 10 days to arrange for a 60-minute time slot on a TV channel.
“I myself will sit to expose the truth as it my moral duty being a responsible citizen of India and also responsible for crores and crores [tens of millions] of Esteemed Investors and 10 Lac [one million] Workers of Sahara”, Mr. Roy said in the ads.
A spokesman for SEBI declined to comment, while attempts to reach a Sahara spokesman were unsuccessful.
Mr. Roy’s move comes after the regulator Friday petitioned the Supreme Court to detain Mr. Roy and other founders of two Sahara group companies for allegedly failing to comply with a Supreme Court order to repay more than $3 billion to debenture holders.
In August, the Supreme Court rejected Sahara’s appeal against a 2011 SEBI order directing the group to refund its debenture holders. SEBI had ruled the bond issuance had violated capital market rules. Sahara marketed the bond sale as a private placement and then sold the issue to millions of investors, the regulator found.
The court told Sahara to deposit the money with SEBI, which was asked to supervise the refunds process. SEBI was authorized by the court to initiate proceedings to seize the group’s assets if it failed to pay the money. The court set the set the deadline for repayment at the end of November but later extended this to the first week of February after Sahara asked for more time.
In February, SEBI passed an order to seize all properties and freeze bank accounts held by the two Sahara Group companies, Mr. Roy and two other founders for failing to repay the money. Sahara claims it has refunded most of its depositors and has deposited the remaining amount with SEBI.
Mr. Roy is appealing against the move to seize his assets to the Securities Appellate Tribunal, which hears appeals against SEBI orders.
Since the Supreme Court order in August, Sahara has fought SEBI over the implementation of the refund in the courts.  The group also has taken frequent recourse to newspaper ads to allege harassment by SEBI.
SEBI has taken out ads of its own warning debenture holders to resist any attempt by the Sahara group to flip their investments into other Sahara investments.
Sahara, however, didn’t invite the Supreme Court to the TV debate. Instead, the group had kind words for the courts.
“Since, last 34 years we have always very respectfully and genuinely said that our judiciary is above board and we have immense respect and faith in our judicial system,” the ads said.

Sebi-Sahara case: SAT to hear Subrata Roy's plea on Mar 23

The Securities Appellate Tribunal today posted for March 23 its final hearing on a plea by Sahara chief Subrata Roy against market regulator Sebi's attachment order on bank accounts and properties of two group firms and their top executives.

The matter relates to a Supreme Court direction ordering refund of more than Rs 24,000 crore of investors' money raised by two Sahara group firms --  Sahara India Real Estate Corp Ltd and Sahara Housing Investment Corp Ltd -- through issue of bonds, wherein Sebi has been asked to facilitate the refund.

After expiry of the court-set deadline for the refund, Sebi last month issued attachment orders against the two firms and their top executives including Subrata Roy.

Roy has appealed to SAT against the attachment orders.

After hearing both the sides, SAT Presiding Officer P K Malhotra today said the matter would be taken up for disposal expeditiously and posted the matter for final hearing on March 23. He, however, refused to give any interim relief.

"The final hearing will be in Mumbai on March 23, 2013. In view of the early hearing granted, we do not consider it necessary to pass any interim order...," Malhotra said.

In its latest order in this long-running case, Sebi last week said the companies have not complied with the Supreme Court orders and therefore it was compelled to pass the attachment orders.

During the hearing today, the Sahara counsel sought interim relief for industrialist Subrata Roy Sahara whose bank accounts have also been ordered to be frozen. The counsel submitted that SAT should at least give an interim relief by directing to de-freeze Roy's accounts.

However, Sebi counsel argued that there was no need for interim relief in the case.

The apex court had passed its first order in this case on August 31, 2012 and Sebi was asked to facilitate the refund.

In December 2012, the group was allowed to pay the money in three instalments, including an immediate payment of Rs 5,120 crore, followed by an instalment of Rs 10,000 crore in January first week and remainder by February first week.

Saharas have paid Rs 5,120 crore to Sebi and claim that this amount itself is more than the total outstanding liability towards the bondholders of the two companies.

Sebi last month also issued public notices cautioning the general public and investors against dealing with the two Sahara group firms and their top executives due to an order for attachment of their assets.

On the other hand, Sahara Group has claimed that the actions taken by Sebi were based on "old facts" and the orders for attaching assets of individuals is incorrect on part of the market regulator.

In an unusual development last week, Sahara group also claimed that it fears income tax raids on it at Sebi's behest.

Sahara on ad blitzkrieg as date for SEBI summons nears

Ten days before Sahara chief Subrata Roy is due to appear before SEBI in the Rs 24,000-crore OFCD case , the group has resorted to yet another advertising campaign. This time the focus is on Sahara's retail expansion as well as the group's social activities, reports CNBC-TV18's Ashmit Kumar.

Subrata Roy, a veteran of regulatory battles, seems to have found his weapon of choice - an ad blitzkrieg. Monday's dailies featured lavish ads on Sahara's latest CSR initiative - VEDAS or Village Esteem Development Adoption - aimed at adopting 1,000 villages.

However, carefully woven in with the CSR agenda, was a not-so-inconspicuous action plan on the Sahara's retail play - Sahara Q shops. Sahara claims that on Monday it opened 250 retail outlets in an attempt to establish a world record for opening the highest number of outlets in a single day.

According to the advertisement, Sahara now boasts of 469 such outlets, over and above 30,000 ‘kirana’ stores enabled by 150 distributors.

Sahara plans to ramp up the number of retail outlets to around 10,000 and ‘kirana’ stores to more than 5 lakh by April 2014.

But the advertisement does not say that the expansion of Sahara Q shops rests on investors’ funds in two Sahara companies that have been allegedly swapped for a Q shop subscription i.e. the Rs 24,000 crore that SEBI has ordered Sahara to return to its OFCD investors.

Analysts add that Sahara's CSR initiative is also not transparent. Incidentally, the seven states where Sahara plans to adopt 1,000 villages happen to be the very states where Sahara owns massive land-banks acquired from the very villages that are likely to be adopted.

The timing of the advertisement is also critical. It was published just days after SEBI issued personal summons to Subrata Roy and three other directors directors to appear before the regulator on April 10 and has also directed them to furninsh all details regarding assets, investments and bank accounts along with complete books of accounts on or before April 8.

The summons comes even as the Securities Appellate Tribunal is hearing petitions filed by Subrata Roy and three directors against the attachment of personal assets and bank accounts.

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Sahara case: Sebi moves SC; seeks Subrata Roy's detention

New Delhi: SEBI on Friday moved the Supreme Court seeking arrest of Sahara group promoter Subrata Roy Sahara and barring him from leaving the country after two companies of the group failed to comply with court's order to refund Rs 24,000 crore to its investors.

The market regulator mentioned the matter before a bench headed by Justice K S Radhakrishnan which agreed to hear its plea and posted the case for hearing in the first week of April.

SEBI urged the court to allow it to "take measures for arrest and detention in civil prison of promoter of Sahara Subrata Roy Sahara and the two male directors---Ashok Roy Choudhary and Ravi Shankar Dubey ---after giving reasonable opportunity of hearing."

SEBI also sought direction that their passports be deposited with the Supreme court.

Sahara group and SEBI are locked in legal dispute over the refunding of 24,000 crore by its two companies--Sahara India Real Estate Corporation (SIREC) and Sahara Housing Investment Corporation (SHIC)--to its investors.

Earlier, the last hope of Sahara group to get more time to refund Rs 24,000 crore to its investors was today dashed in the Supreme Court which dismissed its plea and pulled it up for not complying with the court's earlier order to return the money by first week of February.

A bench headed by Chief Justice Altamas Kabir, which had earlier extended the deadline to two companies of the group for refunding the money from November end to first week of February, had refused to grant more time.

SIREC and SHIC along Roy are facing contempt proceedings in the apex court before another bench which had on February 6 allowed SEBI to freeze accounts and seize properties of its two companies for defying court orders by not refunding the money to investors.

Math Magic Tricks Birthday Date Calcualtions

Trick 1: Birthday magic

Step1: Add 18 to your birth month.
Step2: Multiply by 25.
Step3: Subtract 333.
Step4: Multiply by 8.
step5: Subtract 554.
step6: Divide by 2.
step7: Add your birth date.
step8: Multiply by 5.
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step10: Multiply by 20.
step11: Add only the last two digits of your birth year.
step12: Subtract 32940 to get your birthday!.

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12 साल की नेहा ने IQ में आइंस्टीन को भी पीछे छोड़ा

ब्रिटेन में एक बार फिर भारत के चर्चे हो रहे हैं क्‍योंकि 12 साल की एक बच्‍ची ने आईक्‍यू के मामले में महान साइंटिस्‍ट अलबर्ट आइंस्‍टीन और स्‍टीफन हॉकिंग को भी पीछे छोड़ दिया है। आईक्‍यू टेस्‍ट में नेहा रामू नाम की इस बच्‍ची ने आईक्‍यू टेस्‍ट में 162 का स्‍कोर दर्ज किया है। भारतीय डॉक्टर दंपती की बेटी नेहा रामू की उम्र के हिसाब से ये काफी अधिक स्कोर है।

लिड लाइट से बने कुछ कूल गैजेट्स 

  

इस नए स्‍कोर की वजह से नेहा टॉप सबसे ज्‍यादा बुद्धि में बच्‍चों में शुमार हो चुकी है। दोस्‍तों हम आपको बता दें नेहा के पिता ब्रिटेन में बसने से पहले भारत में ही रहते थे। नेहा की उम्र जब 7 साल थी तक नेहा के पिता ब्रिटेन चले गए थे। स्‍कूल के दिनों में भी नेहा हमेशा अव्‍वल रही है। नेहा के पिता के मुताबिक जब नेहा ने 280 में से 280 अंको का स्कोर किया तब उन्‍हें लगा कि उनकी बेटी में अनोखी प्रतिभा है। नेहा की मां अपनी बेटी की इस उपलब्‍धि पर काफी खुश हैं। नेहा भी अपने माता पिता की तरह डाक्‍टर बनना चाहती है इसके अलावा नेहा ने अमेरिकन इक्विलेंट्स ऑफ A लेवल्स में 800 में से 740 का स्कोर किया है।