Fascinating story of the rise and fall of the Sahara Group of Industries
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By Syed Ali Mujtaba, Edited By Adam Rizvi, The India Observer, TIO: After the demise of Subrat Roy on 14 November 2023, his Sahara Empire is crumbling like a house of cards. It’s a fascinating story of the rise and fall of a business empire that was started not long ago and is now showing its downfall.
The UP government’s action against the Group has intensified, and several of the Group’s luxurious properties have been confiscated by the government in the last few months to repay its dues to the investors.
The rise of Subrat Roy and his empire is a fairy tale. The owner of the Sahara group gained status in the country with political connections, royal lifestyle, and his closeness to film stars and cricket icons. Alas, all this is now counting its last breath.
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The main reason for the government action is defaulting on the loans taken by the group and violation of its terms and conditions. This business model, which turned heads for its fascinating growth story, is now being rebuked for its poor business management skills.
The Sahara group was given notices by the court several times to deposit its outstanding dues, but the Group did not comply with such notices. This left the government with the only option to confiscate its properties to repay its investors.
The Lucknow district administration has made it clear that since the Sahara group has defaulted on the dues payments, action taken by confiscating its assets. The Municipal Corporation of Lucknow has already taken over 170 acres of land that includes the Sahara market and the palatial house of Subrat Roy located in the Sahara city.
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Mr. Gaurav Kumar, Municipal Commissioner of Lucknow Development Authority (LDA), has said that ‘no project could be started on the lands owned by the Sahara group and action will be taken on the rest of the property owned by the Group.’
Sahara Group and its Chairman, Subrat Roy, shot into fame in the 1990s, when the Samajwadi supremo, Mulayam Singh Yadav, put his political weight behind this Group. Late Amar Singh, who was on the right hand of ‘Netaji’, gave huge publicity to the group by organizing functions with film stars and other bigwigs of the entertainment industry. Unofficially being the brand ambassador of the Sahara Group, he took this industrial empire to dazzling heights.
The group attracted headlines for starting one after another in Uttar Pradesh. It gave employment to a lot of people. There was media hype about Subrato Roy, where in one of the ads, he was shown riding a Lambretta Scooter with his wife roaming on the streets of Lucknow. This was to suggest his humble background.
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The group’s troubles started in 2012 when the Supreme Court ordered that two Sahara companies refund over ₹24,000 crore collected from millions of small investors through illegal debentures. The court ordered the sale of Sahara’s assets to repay its investors after years of non-compliance, legal battles, and accusations of shady business practices.
A government-run portal, the CRCS-Sahara Refund Portal, was launched in July 2023 to help depositors in four of Sahara’s cooperative societies claim their refunds, but despite progress in the refund process, millions of investors are still awaiting repayment.
In September 2024, the government increased the refund cap for small depositors to ₹50,000 from ₹10,000. As of early 2025, over 1.2 million depositors had received partial payments.
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The group, to expedite repayments to investors, applied to the Supreme Court on September 30, 2025, seeking permission to sell its flagship properties, including Aamby Valley, to Adani Properties Private Limited.
Notwithstanding the facts, in 2025, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) initiated new actions against the group. The agency arrested two officials in July, provisionally attached Aamby Valley land in April, and filed a money-laundering charge sheet against Roy’s family members in September 2025.
After the death of Subrata Roy, the Sahara Group is in the process of a court-supervised asset liquidation to repay investors. His death has prompted renewed questions about the status of the over ₹25,000 crore lying in the SEBI-Sahara refund account.
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Commenting on this fascinating story of the rise and fall of the Sahara Group of Industries, observers say ‘the biggest fault of Subrat Roy was not to court the BJP. It is seen that after the BJP has taken control of Uttar Pradesh’s politics, the downfall of the Sahara Empire has started.
Now, the situation has come to such a pass, the group is on the verge of folding up. This is not to say that Sahara Group is “folding up” in the traditional sense, but its business operations have been severely curtailed by legal and financial issues that span over a decade.
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Curated by Humra Kidwai
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