Gorakhpur Real Estate Developers Pvt.Ltd. on Monday emerged as a successful bidder for Sahara Group's 45.71 acres in Uttar Pradesh's Gorakhpur city offering Rs.152 crore - more than two crores that the other bidder Samridhi Builders was willing to pay.
A bench of Justice T.S.Thakur, Justice Anil R. Dave and Justice A. K. Sikri accepted the highest bid by the Gorakhpur Real estate Developers Private Limited after Samridhi Builders declined to improve their bid to match one made by the competitor.
Accepting the bid of Rs.152 crore, the court said that the firm would get the Sahara's land in Gorakhpur on the same terms and conditions as Samridhi Builders, directing its name replace Samridhi Builders in the earlier MoU that Sahara had signed with the latter.
The court accepted the bid from Gorakhpur Real Estate Developers after it submitted a bank draft and cheque covering 25 percent of the Rs.150 crore that were ordered by the court by its July 13 order to prove their bonafides.
The bank draft and the cheque was issued in the favour of SEBI Sahara account where all the money is being parked that in turn would be used to return the money that Sahara's two entities SIRECL and SHFCL had collected from investors in 2007-2008 as per court's August 31, 2012 and December 2012 order to return investors Rs.24,000 crore along with 15 percent interest. The total amount along with interest component now stands at Rs.36,000 crore.
The court gave Gorakhpur Real Estate Developers till November 30 to pay the balance in three instalments - on September 30, October 31 and November 30.
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The court reiterated its earlier order that any default in the payment of the balance amount would result in the forfeiting of the amount already deposited.
Declaring Gorakhpur Real Estate Developers, the court asked the market regulator SEBI to refund the 25 percent deposit given by Samridhi Builders in pursuance to July 13 order.
The court had sent Subrata Roy and two directors of the group to judicial custody on March 4, 2014 for their failure to comply with its August 31, 2012 and December 2012 orders.