Sahara lawyer says SEBI misled SC on auction process

New Delhi: Sahara on Saturday said that the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has misled the Supreme Court as it has blamed Sahara for obstructing the auction process of Aamby Valley.

SEBI has filed a petition in the apex court alleging that Sahara was obstructing the auction process and strongly prayed for initiation of contempt proceedings against the directors of Aamby Valley, including against its chief Subrata Roy.

On the issue of obstructing the auction process, Sahara`s lawyer Gautam Awasthi said that Sahara has not handed over custody of Aamby Valley to police. "Sahara had, in fact asked for police protection and that too on payment," the lawyer said.

"SEBI very wrongfully presented to (the) Supreme Court, while hiding the fact that presence of police was meant only to provide police protection and not handing over possession of the property to police," the statement said.

The lawyer added that in some publications, it was also absolutely wrongfully written that the court warned Subrata Roy whereas there was no such warning.

The top court directed the auction of Aamby valley to recover money that the Sahara group has to pay to the market regulator SEBI for returning investors money that its two companies SIRECL and SHICL had raised from investors in 2007 and 2008.

The top court by its August 31, 2012 order had asked Sahara group`s two companies - Sahara India Real Estate Corp Ltd. (SIRECL) and Sahara Housing Investment Corporation Ltd (SHICL) - to return to investors Rs 17,400 crore, along with 15 per cent interest.

The Sahara group has already given a part of the money to SEBI that was being parked in the SEBI-Sahara Refund Account.