Several employees of the Sahara Group have not been paid salaries for the last few months due to the company’s long-standing dispute with market regulator SEBI over investor repayments, sources said.

This comes at a time when the Lucknow-based conglomerate, which has business interests in diverse fields such as Formula One, hotels and television, is trying to raise $1.6 billion to bail its chief Subrata Roy.

Sources in the know said that many employees have not been paid since September.

Liquidity crunch

A spokesperson said: “The group is facing a liquidity crunch for past one year due to embargo and double payment, resulting in many problems like meeting the salary, statutory and other operating obligations/expenses. In some divisions, salaries of our employees have got delayed by many months.”

Sahara employs around 12 lakh people, including temporary workers, across group companies.

“We are releasing the salaries from time-to-time based on the fund flow. The delayed salaries of the junior staff were released just a few days back as extra care has been taken for our junior staff. Soon salaries of other brackets will be released,” the spokesperson added.

However, the situation is better at Sahara Star, Aamby Valley City, Sahara Hospital and others as these have independent cash flows.

The Sahara Group has been trying to raise funds to secure the release of its Chief Subrata Roy, and two other officials, from Tihar Jail. They were jailed when the Group failed to to comply with a court order to repay investors in a bond programme, estimated to be around $7 billion, that was ruled illegal. Sahara has been trying to raise bail money using its properties, including New York’s Plaza Hotel and Grosvenor House in London. However, no deal has been stuck yet.

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