Taking a serious view of non-implementation of its order and not satisfied with the proposal to refund deposits amounting to Rs. 20,000 crore, the Supreme Court on Tuesday sent Sahara chief Subrata Roy and two company directors to judicial custody till March 11.
A Bench of Justices K.S. Radhakrishnan and J.S. Khehar passed this interim order after hearing Mr. Roy, who was brought to the court from Lucknow, and his senior counsel Ram Jethmalani, Rajeev Dhavan, Aryama Sundaram and Ravi Shankar Prasad.
Man throws ink
As Mr. Roy was entering the court, a man claiming to be an investor threw ink on his face. He was whisked away by the police.
The two directors taken into custody are Ravi Shankar Dubey and Ashok Roy Choudhary. A woman director, Vandana Bhargava, was set free to enable her to hold talks with Mr. Roy and other directors for submitting a fresh and concrete proposal for the refund of deposits.
Taken to Tihar
At the end of the two-hour proceedings, Mr. Roy was taken to the Tihar jail. While coming out of the court, he told journalists “this is the best award the country could have given me.”
Mr. Roy tendered an unconditional apology for not being present in the court on February 26 and the court accepted it.
In its order, the Bench said “sufficient opportunities have been given to the contemnors to fully comply with those orders and purge the contempt committed by them but, rather than availing [themselves] of the same, they have adopted various dilatory tactics.”
The Bench said non-compliance with its orders would shake the “very foundation of our judicial system and undermine the rule of law, which we are bound to honour and protect.”
The court made it clear that the documents and materials produced by Sahara would apparently falsify their refund theory and cast serious doubts about the existence of the so-called investors.
