Sahara Group says it has re-paid ₹3,226 crore to its depositors

The Sahara Group has repaid ₹3,226 crore to its depositors in the last 75 days, the firm has said while promising to pay back each of its investors, according to Business Standard.

“Out of the total amount paid, only 2.18 per cent payment were made against requests made by different people to us for premature payments etc., and they all have been paid. The rest was paid on maturity of their term,” one of its top executives was quoted as saying.

The group has further said that in the past 10 years it has made a maturity payment of ₹1.4 trillion to 57.6 million investors, it was reported.

It was earlier reported that the four cooperative societies of the Sahara Group and their deposits of over ₹86,000 crore were red-flagged by the government. The government wanted a probe against the societies after it found “highly suspect” irregularities, putting depositors’ money at ‘serious’ risk, the Indian Express had reported.

Related news: ₹86,000 crore of 4 crore depositors at ‘serious’ risk in 4 Sahara co-op societies

These four societies are: Sahara Credit Cooperative Society Ltd, Humara India Credit Cooperative Society Ltd, Saharayn Universal Multipurpose Society Ltd, and Stars Multipurpose Cooperative Society Ltd, according to the report.

Meanwhile, the Group has defended itself saying it has not done anything “illegal” since the credit cooperative bye-laws permit contributions from regular members of a society.

It also cited the legal opinion of a former high court judge stating why credit cooperative societies will not come under the purview of The Banning of Unregulated Deposit Schemes Act, 2019, according to Indian Express.