Is Sahara trying to ring fence Aamby Valley from Sebi scrutiny?

The Sahara group seems to be trying its level best to save its high-profile Aamby Valley project from financial troubles.

According to a report in The Times of India today, the group has submitted documents of two land parcels in Mumbai and its suburbs to the Sebi. The move is in keeping with a Supreme Court order that asked the group to submit the original documents of properties as collateral for the refund amount.

Sebi is overseeing the court-ordered refund of Rs 20,500 crore the group illegally raised from about 3 million investors.

According to today’s report there was speculation that the group may have to submit documents of the Aamby Valley project or some of its foreign properties for the market regulator’s scrutiny.

The ToI report says quoting Sahara sources that the group has submitted documents of a 106-acre plot in Versova and another 200-acre in Vasai to Sebi. The first one is worth about Rs 19,300 crore and the second one about Rs 1,200 crore.

Last week, The Economic Times reported that the group is trying to sell The Plaza and Dream Downtown in New York and London’s Grosvenor House, the iconic hotels that it had bought recently, to an Arab group.

Grosvenor House was bought in 2010, and the other two in 2012. The report said the group is likely to pocket about Rs 4,000 crore profit if the sale goes through.

However, the twist in the tale is that the new documents is creating more problem than resolving it.

This is because, as per the ToI report citing a Sebi source, as much as 50 percent of the land documents submitted by the group are not original. They are just photocopies.

Interestingly, this is the second time the group is submitting the documents of the Versova land. Last time, Sebi found the title was defective, says the report.

The court will again hear the refund case on 20 November.

It has to be remembered it was in August 2012 the Supreme Court ordered the group to refund investors the money it raised through illegal OFCDs issued by two Sahara companies. Logically, the order should have put an end to the controversial fundraising case. But even after more than a year, the case seems to have made little progress.

Sahara says most of the refund has been done but the regulator denied this.

The new set of documents that has reached Sebi will only give rise to a new headache for the regulator.

With Sahara, Sebi seems to be going round and round. But that means investors are too.