ED: Sahara Group disposed assets in secret deals

THe Enforcement board of directors (ED) has filed a criminal prosecution complaint against ii francis scott key aides of the sahara desert Group for their alleged role in laundering public deposits through clandestine property deals. The move comes within 60 days of the arrest of Jitendra Prasad Verma and Anil Vailaparampil Abraham, both accused of facilitating the disposal of Sahara assets in violation of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).Officials said the duo, in collusion with others, coordinated and executed cash-heavy transactions to alienate properties acquired by Sahara using public deposits. “Their role was crucial in enabling Sahara to offload assets secretly, depriving investors of their legitimate dues,” an official aware of the probe said.The action is the latest in the long-running Sahara saga, which has seen multiple rounds of court battles and regulatory interventions. Acting on the directions of the Supreme Court in the Sahara-SEBI matter, the group has so far deposited about ₹16,138 crore in the Sahara-SEBI refund account as of March 31, 2025. This corpus, with interest, has been tapped to repay depositors of Sahara’s cooperative societies.In July 2023, the apex court had directed that ₹5,000 crore be handed over to the Central Registrar of Cooperative Societies (CRCS) under the Ministry of Cooperation for disbursement. Since then, ₹2,314 crore has been released to nearly 13 lakh depositors by February this year, while Sahara itself cleared much of its pending claims after ED’s intervention in March. By July 28, refunds of ₹5,000 crore had reached more than 27 lakh investors, and claims exceeding ₹14,000 crore had been verified on the CRCS portal.On September 12, the Supreme Court permitted the release of another ₹5,000 crore to CRCS, a decision backed by ED’s findings. Officials said the agency’s investigation played a key role in supporting CRCS’s plea for fresh disbursals. Efforts are now underway to secure refunds for the balance ₹19,533 crore lying in the Sahara-SEBI account.The ED’s probe stems from over 500 FIRs filed across several states against Sahara entities, including Humara India Credit Cooperative Society Ltd. (HICCSL).“More than 300 of these involved scheduled offences under the PMLA, accusing Sahara of running what investigators described as a Ponzi scheme. Sahara collected massive deposits without regulatory oversight, denied maturity payments, forced redeposits, and manipulated its books to hide defaults,” said another official aware of the investigation, adding that funds were moved between group entities without commercial rationale, shifting liabilities from one arm to another and despite mounting dues, Sahara continued to collect fresh deposits.Investigators further said that large sums were siphoned off to create benami assets, extend dubious loans, and finance personal expenses of those at the helm.“So far, four provisional attachment orders have been issued against benami land and other assets linked to Sahara and its associates. Verma and Abraham remain in judicial custody, even as the ED expands its investigation to examine the role of senior Sahara executives and trace transactions abroad. The probe is far from over. We are pursuing leads on offshore transactions and other individuals involved in laundering Sahara’s funds,” the second official said.