Friday is poised to be a decider for Sahara group chief Subrata Roy with a Special Bench of the Supreme Court scheduled to pronounce judgment on the question of his release from Tihar jail, where he has been lodged since March 2014 unable to pay Rs. 10,000 crore for his bail.
The three-judge Bench led by Justice T.S. Thakur, while reserving the case for final orders in mid-May, had sought details on how the group proposes to proceed with the sale of its assets and payment to the SEBI.
The apex court on August 31, 2012 had said the group was required to refund Rs 24,000 crore with 15 per cent interest in three months to the depositors. On March 26, 2014 the court asked Mr. Roy to pay Rs 10,000 crore to get bail, out of which Rs 5,000 crore should be paid in cash and rest in bank guarantees.
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During the last hearing, counsel for Mr. Roy sought his release from jail saying that he will be submitting a scheme on repayment in July and he can be sent back he defaults.
“Goodwill gesture”
“As a goodwill gesture, please release him. Please give six weeks time to him and he be sent back to jail if he does not do the needful,” counsel Kapil Sibal said, adding “keeping him in jail does not serve any body’s purpose”.
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“Please do not feel that we are insensitive… and for last 16 months, we had been asking your client about the payment of money. This is not an ordinary case and its a case of its own kind. This man is in jail for the last 16 months…how do you ensure that money is recovered…,” the Bench had responded during the hearing.
The court earlier permitted Mr. Roy to use facilities like the conference room in Tihar jail complex to hold negotiations with potential buyers to sell his three luxury hotels–Dream Downtown and The Plaza in New York and Grosvenor House in London–to raise Rs 10,000 crore to get regular bail.
Three-judge Bench had reserved case for final orders in
mid-May