Jharkhand came out with a helpline on Sunday to seek information from those who had not received a refund of their money invested in schemes floated by Sahara India companies, the move in line with a promise made by the Hemant Soren government to take up their cause with the Centre and market regulator SEBI.

Residents of the state are understood to have suffred losses to the tune of Rs 2,400 crore, according to BJP MLA Navin Jaiswal who raised the issue in the Assembly earlier this week.

The helpline (121) was norified jointly by the state finance department and the CID of Jharkhand police. “The helpline is to identify actual number of investors who lost their money and the quantum of their losses in order to take steps accordingly. The government is serious about helping poor investors get back their money once the ongoing court cases are over,” said a finance department official.

In his reply to Jaiswal's question, state finance minister Rameshwar Oraon had said in the Assembly that the state government would initiative steps to coordinate with the Centre and Securities and Exchange Board of India to pursue the return of investors' wealth.

Sahara India investors realised something was amiss in 2010 after SEBI banned Sahara India Pariwar chief Subrata Roy and two of its companies—Sahara India Real Estate Corp (SIREC) and Sahara Housing Investment Corp (SHIC) _ from raising money from the public, calling it illegal.

This was followed by slew of cases against the company filed by various stakeholders in different courts in the country. The case moved to the Supreme Court in 2015.