Surat: A Sahara Group company Sahara Q Gold Mart Ltd was ordered to return Rs 4.59 lakh with 8% interest from 2012 to an investor within one month by the Valsad District Consumer Dispute Redressal Commission. The court also ordered the compensation of Rs 5,000 to the complainant Naresh Solanki.
According to the case details, Solanki had invested Rs 4.59 lakh in June 2012 into Sahara Q Gold Mart Ltd's gold bond scheme that promised 12% annual return with a maturity period of five years.
In June 2017 when Solanki approached the company’s local office in Dharampur to collect the maturity amount, the local office bearer told him that he would need to talk to his head office first. When the company did not pay him the maturity amount, Solanki approached Valsad District Consumer Dispute Redressal Commission and lodged a complaint against company officials alleging cheating and unfair trade practices.
Company’s local branch manager appeared before the court and argued that the payment was delayed due to the Supreme Court’s stay on Sahara’s property's sale. Meanwhile, the company's advocate argued that Solanki had not produced any documents to prove that he had invested the money in the company’s said scheme.
“Records show that Naresh Solanki had invested Rs 4.59 lakh into the scheme and the company had not said that the scheme was in loss. Therefore, the investor is entitled to get banking interest of 8%,” the court stated in its order.
Taking into account that banking interest on fixed deposits in 2012 in nationalised banks which was 8%, the company is ordered to return the invested amount with 8% interest from June 2012, the order stated.