Sahara offers Rs 22,500 crore bank guarantees

Accused of persistent non-compliance, the Sahara group today proposed to furnish fresh bank guarantees for Rs 22,500 crore. Sahara said it can "depute hundreds of competent workers" to assist Securities and Exchange Board of India, or Sebi, in collating the documents and other information for verification of documents.

This came on a day when Sahara chief Subrata Roy was brought by police to appear before the Supreme Court.

Raising an emotional pitch, the group asked the Supreme Court to accept the offer "in the best interest of Sahara's crores of existing investors and to protect the livelihood of 12 lakhs workers/employees".

The group contended that if the verification process throws out any investor who is not "genuine" or if there are fictitious accounts, then the group would deposit the amount attributable to such investors to the Government of India "in cash through Sebi within a period of 30 days".

Sahara said until the bank guarantee is submitted, Sebi is free to sell off properties already handed over.

Sahara's proposal states that the bank guarantees can be invoked by Sebi only if Sahara fails to deposit the amount within a period of 30 days, or if the group firms fail to repay the investors from whom money was raised.