The Sahara Challenge for SEBI!
Son: It appears that the verification of the documents of the investors of Sahara Parivar has become a real challenge to the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), dad.
Father: Go on, Son.
Son: It looks more like a nightmare than a reality, dad.
Father: Like what? Go on, son.
Son: An article in the Economic Times says that Sahara has dispatched to SEBI physical forms with pictures of its three crore investors, their names, addresses, signatures and proof that they live in the alleys of Lucknow, Moradabad and Jhumri Talaiya, dad.
Father: Go on, son.
Son: Sahara’s advocate Ram Jethmalani has told the court that the papers were sent in 31,000 cartons in 128 trucks, dad!
Father: Oh! My God! Go on, son.
Son: Assuming that they were normal 20-feet trucks, the convoy would extend 1.5 Km long even if they keep a mere 4-m distance between the two vehicles, dad!
Father: Wonderful! Go on, son.
Son: Each truck can carry a volume of 1,360 cubic foot. Hence SEBI received 1,74,080 cu feet of paper, dad!
Father: Go on, son.
Son: Stacked on top of one another, the pile of trucks would rise 333 meters into the sky, dwarfing India’s tallest building, the 256-metre twin Imperial Towers at Tardeo in Mumbai, dad!
Father: Great! Go on, son.
Son: SEBI’s Mumbai office has 560 employees. A diligent SEBI employee is expected to take 15 minutes per investor and handle documents of 30 investors a day, dad.
Father: Go on, son.
Son: If every employee is engaged exclusively in the verification, the team is likely to complete verification of documents of 84,000 investors per week, dad!
Father: Go on, son.
Son: If SEBI cancels the leave of every employee and closes down all other activities, the team is expected to complete its task by 2033, dad!
Father: I don’t know, son!
The Magic of a Different Kind!
Son: There was a time when Kolkata was known for the magic of the legendary P C Sirkar, dad.
Father: True. Go on, son.
Son: He used to perform several interesting tricks by making things disappear in thin air and creating things from out of nowhere, dad!
Father: True. Go on, son.
Son: Now Kolkata is suddenly in the news for the magic of a different kind, dad.
Father: Like what? Go on, son.
Son: The West Bengal Infrastructure Development Corporation (WBFDC) has claimed that around Rs120 crore has vanished from its fixed deposits account with UCO bank’s Circus Avenue branch, dad.
Father: Oh! My God! Go on, son.
Son: As per WBFDC, it had transferred Rs59 crore from Bank of India to UCO Bank in August 2012 to avail the higher interest offered by the Circus Avenue branch, dad.
Father: Go on, son.
Son: WBFDC had transferred another Rs60 crore from Indian Bank in January 2013 to the same branch and is holding receipts for both the deposits issued by the branch, dad.
Father: Go on, son.
Son: Now UCO bank says that the deposits are fake and at no point of time the receipts were issued by its branch as alleged by WBFDC, dad!
Father: I don’t know, son!
The Missing Loan Amount!
Son: While UCO Bank is facing an allegation of missing deposit amount, Canara Bank is facing the trouble of a different kind, dad.
Father: Like what? Go on, son.
Son: It is a case of missing loan amount, dad!
Father: How come? Go on, son.
Son: The bank had lent Rs350 crore to Deccan Chronicle Holdings Ltd (DCHL) of Hyderabad, dad.
Father: Go on, son.
Son: As DCHL failed to repay the loan, the bank had entrusted Deloitte with the work of tracing the money lent to the company, dad!
Father: Go on, son.
Son: But Deloitte failed to trace the money lent by the bank and the bank feels that the money has been siphoned off, dad!
Father: Go on, son.
Son: According to Financial Express, the bank has filed charges of fraud with the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) against DCHL for siphoning off funds loaned to the company, dad.
Father: I don’t know, son!
A V Krishnamurthy
24th March 2013
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