Under the leadership of Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi and guidance of Union Home Minister and Minister of Cooperation, Shri Amit Shah, the Ministry of Cooperation is committed to protect the interests of the people associated with the cooperative sector. In this direction, on the petition of Ministry of Cooperation, in a historic decision the Hon'ble Supreme Court today ordered the refund from Sahara-SEBI refund account to about 10 crore investors of 4 cooperative societies of Sahara Group.

Sahara Group's four societies- Sahara Credit Cooperative Society Limited, Saharayan Universal Multipurpose Society Limited, Humara India Credit Cooperative Society Limited and Stars Multipurpose Cooperative Society Limited, were registered under the Multi-State Cooperative Societies Act, 2002 between March, 2010 and January, 2014. A large number of complaints were received from across the country regarding non-payment of deposits to the depositors of these co-operative societies. Taking cognizance of the complaints, notices were issued to the societies and hearing was held before the Central Registrar. During the course of hearings, the Central Registrar directed the societies to pay the unpaid amount to the investors and stopped the societies from taking fresh deposits and renewing existing ones. The Ministry of Cooperation digitized about 1.22 lakh claims received from the depositors and sent them to these committees for payment, but the committees did not take necessary action in this regard. Everyday a large number of applications are being received from the depositors of these societies for payment of their investments.

As per the directions of Union Home Minister and Minister of Cooperation, Shri Amit Shah, Ministry of Cooperation has taken up the matter on priority and held several meetings with Department of Economic Affairs, Department of Revenue, SEBI, SFIO and ED etc. The Ministry filed a petition in this regard before the Hon'ble Supreme Court for status report and resolution of the matter. It was requested to the Hon'ble Supreme Court that Rs. 5,000 crore from the Sahara-SEBI Refund Account can be used to pay depositors of the four co-operative societies of the Sahara Group. These efforts of the Ministry of Cooperation show that the government under the leadership of Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi is committed to safeguard the interests of the poor and downtrodden.

On the petition filed by the Ministry of Cooperation, the Hon'ble Supreme Court ordered that out of the balance amount in the Sahara-SEBI Refund Account, Rs. 5,000 crore to be transferred to the Central Registrar for refund to the investors of Cooperative Societies of Sahara Group. Under the supervision of the Supreme Court-appointed Retired judge Shri R. Subhash Reddy and with the assistance of Mr. Gaurav Agarwal, Advocate, the Central Registrar will complete the payment process in 9 months. The payment to the investors will be made through a transparent process to the legitimate investors of Sahara Societies through their bank accounts on the basis of proper proof of their identity and deposit.

The Ministry of Cooperation, under the supervision of Hon'ble Supreme Court appointed Retired Judge Shri R.K Subhash Reddy, will soon start the process of payment to the legitimate investors of cooperative societies of Sahara Group through a proper transparent mechanism, which will provide relief to crores of investors and their families.

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