Sahara might delay March salary payment

The beleaguered Sahara Group has informed its staff that their salaries may get delayed due to the prevailing adverse situation, including attachment of its bank accounts.

" The Group is working hard to normalise things despite adverse conditions," it said adding that staff salaries for March, scheduled to be released on April 1, may get delayed because of unforeseen reasons.

The circular comes close on the heels of a Sahara Group entity floating the idea for collection of, at least,  Rs 1 lakh each from Sahara employees and well- wishers to garner necessary funds to secure group chief Subrata Roy's release from Tihar Jail.

The Supreme Court has proposed a conditional interim bail for him asking the Group to deposit  Rs 10,000 crore, including  Rs 5,000 crore as bank guarantee.

The circular, issued by Sahara India Pariwar's chief general manager ( HR) Gaurav Sharma, has directed all business divisions and department heads to inform workers in their respective divisions and departments about the delay and urge them to stay united in this challenging phase.

The Sahara Group is locked in a long legal battle with the Securities and Exchange Board of India ( Sebi) over refund to investors from which two Group entities had raised over  Rs 24,000 crore through issuance of bonds.

Sahara had deposited  Rs 5,120 crore with Sebi in December 2012 and claimed that it had already refunded over  Rs 20,000 crore directly to investors.

Rejecting these claims, Sebi in February, 2013 had ordered attachment of all bank accounts and frozen all its assets last year.