The Union Ministry of Cooperation, under the supervision of the apex court appointed retired Judge RK Subhash Reddy has a mammoth task on hand—to process the refund to around 10 crore investors of cooperative societies of Sahara Group from the Sahara-SEBI refund account within December this year.

This payment will be made through a transparent process to the valid investors of Sahara Societies through their bank accounts on providing proof of their proper identity and deposit, said an official from the Ministry which has started making the blueprint to execute the task. The move follows the Supreme Court order on March 29, asking the Ministry to make payment from Sahara-SEBI refund account to the crores of investors of 4 cooperative societies of Sahara Group.

These are Sahara Credit Cooperative Society Limited, Saharayan Universal Multipurpose Society Limited, Humara India Credit Cooperative Society Limited and Stars Multipurpose Cooperative Society Limited, all registered under the Multi-State Cooperative Societies Act, 2002 between March, 2010 and January, 2014.  The order came in response to a petition filed by the Centre in a PIL by one Pinak Pani Mohanty, who sought a direction to pay the amount to the depositors who invested in several chit fund companies and Sahara credit firms.”This is the hard-earned money of people who invested in several chit fund companies and Sahara credit firms over years.

Taking cognizance of  complaints, initially notices were issued to the societies and hearing was held before the Central Registrar. However, despite Central Registrar's direction, the societies refused to pay the unpaid amount to the investors and continued taking fresh deposits and renewing existing ones.”