Subrata Roy Sahara’s journey of extremes ends at 75
₹20,000 crore fund to small investors in Sahara group companies who were duped with promises of surreal returns through various dubious schemes. He was sent to judicial custody in Tihar Jail and was released on parole in 2017. Since then, his health had been deteriorating.
Meanwhile, Sebi was struggling to disgorge the amounts that were illegally collected from lakhs of gullible investors by Sahara’s ponzi schemes, allegations that the group has consistently denied. How did Roy end up collecting so much money? It helped that he was a familiar figure in Gorakhpur, where he completed his graduation in engineering and where he set up the Sahara Group in 1978. Thanks to his familiarity, many small investors such as rickshaw pullers and tea stall owners believed in his schemes and that they would receive the assured sum in return.
These schemes were operated by Sahara India Financial, the group's flagship firm. For over three decades, Roy’s businesses flourished as millions of small investors poured money into Sahara’s schemes, often perceiving the company as a patriotic business group. Problems begun to surface in 2008, when Sebi refused to approve an IPO by one of Sahara Group’s real-estate firms.
These issues were aggravated in 2012 when Sebi accused Sahara of cheating millions of investors with ponzi schemes, which the company denied. Then in 2012, after Sebi banned the public pooling of funds, it kickstarted an era of widespread shutdowns of such businesses and ponzi schemes – especially those in West Bengal, such as Rose Valley, Sharada and so on. The Sahara Group’s business was badly affected.
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