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One can now count Tihar Jail among the country's most expensive hotels. The Sahara group has paid Rs 31 lakh to authorities of the jail as charges for the stay of its chief Subrata Roy in an air-conditioned facility and services such as phone, internet and video conferencing for 57 days.
The amount works to about Rs 54,400 a day.
The Supreme Court had allowed the Sahara chief to use the jail's conference room to negotiate the sale of his hotels to collect Rs 10,000 crore, the amount required for his bail.
"The payment was made by the Sahara group a few days before the withdrawal of special services. An amount of Rs 31 lakh has been submitted to us. This includes the expenses towards security, electricity charges, food, etc," said a senior jail official.
Roy, 65, along with two Sahara Group directors - Ashok Roy Choudhary and Ravi Shankar Dubey - stayed at the special facility for 57 days (August 5 to September 30).
In a recent letter to Tihar Jail authorities, Roy had sought the facilities be restored, saying about 80 per cent of the deal had been fixed and withdrawal of these services might lead to its cancellation. Citing a threat to his life, he had also sought his security be beefed up.
Roy, who was sent to jail on March 4 this year for non-refund of about Rs 20,000 crore along with interest, to depositors, was asked by the court to pay Rs 10,000 crore for bail - Rs 5,000 crore in cash and the rest in bank guarantees.
