ED's allegations of money laundering concocted and baseless: Sahara

Allegations made by the Enforcement Directorate on Sahara group of alleged money laundering are absolutely concocted and baseless, replies Sahara group in an exclusive email statement sent to Indiatoday.in.

Replying to Indiatoday.in story titled, "ED likely to question Subrata Roy soon, suspects money laundering," published online two days back, Sahara group said in its fresh email statement, "we are not aware of any such investigation as mentioned in Indiatoday.in story. Nevertheless as per the story itself said ED investigation is in its initial stage and nothing has been concluded yet, the allegation against Sahara are purely based on assumptions and suspicion."

The statement also said, "All these allegations are absolutely concocted and baseless. Let us wait for the investigation to come out with the truth which we are confident is with us. But before that do not castigate us for what we have not done merely on assumptions."

Few days back, while talking to IndiaToday.in, a senior ED official with a request of anonymity had said, "Based on the latest findings of SEBI and our own initial examination, we suspect money laundering has been done in large number. Out of this Rs 24,000 crore case, around Rs.17,000 crore is under our investigation."

As of now, the ED team is in the process of investor's verification. In fact, the senior ED official had said, "the large number of investors in Sahara OFCD scheme are fake - who have been used to launder the huge amount of money."

But in the fresh statement, Sahara has vehemently denied it, saying, "All its investors are genuine. Sahara had sent 127 truckloads of original documents pertaining to its 3 crore OFCD investors to SEBI. As a proof of repayments and as per the order of the court, Sahara had provided SEBI, original application forms, redemption vouchers and other records all in original for enabling SEBI to conduct verification of the said investors. SEBI is yet to carry out this verification. Till this verification is completed by SEBI and it is ascertained that source of funds collected and the payments made by Sahara companies are not genuine or that the investors do not exist, no allegation of money laundering can be made by anybody or any authority. Consequently till then, ED or any other authority may not have jurisdiction in the matter, involving verification of investors."

Just going back, the Supreme Court has, by its judgement dated 31.08.2012 directed SEBI to make verification of the investors, and for this purpose, SEBI has been given detailed step-by-step guidelines.

According to Sahara group, it is incorrect to say that Sahara companies have not refunded the investors, in fact, "it has already refunded 93 per cent of its investors."

ED's investigation has just begun in this case and as told to Indiatoday.in, it is likely to question the founder and chairman of Sahara group - Subrata Roy in the coming days, who is in Tihar jail since February 28, 2014.

Now, whether ED officials have something real and concrete evidences to prove its allegations or whether they are blindly hitting the bush, time will definitely tell, but as of now - Sahara group is completely denying the allegations of money laundering.