Pay 300 Cr soon or go back to jail: SC to Subrato Roy

Sahara group chief Subrata Roy secured a huge relief from the Supreme Court today when it extended till August 3 the parole granted to him on humantarian grounds following the death of his mother. But there was a rider.There was a strict condition that he will have to deposit the balance of Rs 300 crore, out of the Rs 500 crore promised by him.

"But you remember you have to deposit balance Rs 300 crore. Either you pay or go back to jail," a bench headed by Chief Justice T S Thakur said while reminding him of the May 11 order when he was given time of two months to enable him deposit Rs 200 crore with market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI).

The bench rejected the plea of Kapil Sibal, senior lawyer who represented Roy who sought “time till the year end” for depositing Rs 300 crore but the bench told him "we have already given you a long rope".

It also drew his attention to the history of the case which led to the incarceration of Sahara chief from March 4, 2014 to May 6, 2016.

As Sibal cited difficulties in selling and alienating the properties, the bench said "why don't we appoint a receiver and entrust him all properties".

Besides extension of Roy's parole, Sahara Group also got other much-needed relief with the apex court lifting its embargo of permitting it to sell only 19 properties which included mortgaging the 600 acre Aamby Valley in Mumbai and three overseas hotels -- Grosvenor House Hotel in London, the New York Plaza and Dream New York hotels.

The bench allowed the group to go ahead with sale and alienation of their other properties to raise an amount of Rs 5,000 crore as a bank guarantee they have to deposit in addition to Rs 5,000 crore to get bail for Roy.

STATEMENT FROM SAHARA’S LAWYER GAUTAM AWASTHI
"Hon’ble Supreme Court today has granted us the permission to sell any of the property belongs to Sahara including those Sahara’s properties which have being given to SEBI for sell, with the same terms and condition on which Hon’ble Supreme Court has allowed SEBI to sell them.
In that sense, we have a situation where the embargo upto certain extend has been lifted by the Hon’ble Supreme Court. Apart from that Hon’ble Supreme Court also extended the temporary relief of Shri Subrata Roy Sahara and Shri Ashok Roy Chaudhary in addition to that Shri R S Dubey has also been released by Hon’ble Supreme Court today on same terms and condition on which other two persons were released.
In addition to this Hon’ble Court has also directed SEBI to collect Sahara’s money wherever they are laying which was mentioned in the application and Hon’ble Supreme Court also said that it does not have any objection if the money raised by Saharas as a bridge loan in London may be bought to SEBI Sahara account".