 "Subrata Roy, Sahara")
The Sahara group has submitted a 24-month road map before the Supreme Court for payment of dues to market regulator the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi).
The finer details of the road map, which envisages instalment payments of Rs 500 crore between January 2017 and December 2018, need to be worked out and agreed upon by the counsels of Sahara, Sebi and the amicus curiae over the next few weeks as differences have cropped up over the due amount.
Meanwhile, the Bench headed by Chief Justice T S Thakur extended Sahara chief Roy’s parole till November 28 on the condition of payment of a further Rs 200 crore. Of this, Sahara deposited Rs 15 crore on Friday. Roy was released on a four-week parole in May to attend his mother’s funeral and the court has since extended the arrangement several times on payment of sums ranging between Rs 200 crore and Rs 300 crore towards the Sebi-Sahara account.
Also Read
The account is maintained by Sebi and the amount is to be utilised by the regulator to repay some 29.6 million investors who bought bonds of Sahara Housing Invest Corp and Sahara India Real Estate Corp. In August 2012, the Supreme Court had directed that the firms repay the entire sum with an interest of 15 per cent per annum. The court sent Roy and two other directors to Tihar jail in March 2014, after the group failed to carry out the orders of the court. According to figures submitted by the regulator to the court on Friday, the principal amount due was Rs 25,781.32 crore. Out of this, the total amount in the Sebi-Sahara account as on October 17 was Rs 13,333 crore, including interest accrued. That leaves an outstanding of Rs 12,448 crore in the principal amount.
When interest due is included, the total dues, according to Sebi calculations, come to Rs 47,000 crore, leaving an outstanding of Rs 33,753 crore. However, the Sahara road map mentions dues of around Rs 7,700 crore. Sahara’s counsel Kapil Sibal told the court that he would discuss with Sebi counsel Arvind Datar and amicus curiae Shekhar Naphade and agree upon the terms of the repayment roadmap. Thakur asked Sibal to “make sure that the roadmap is practicable”.
In a statement issued after the proceedings Sahara lawyer Gautam Awasthi said, “Hon’ble Supreme Court has also agreed to consider the roadmap, which will be finalised, by Amicus Curiae, Senior Counsel for Sebi and Kapil Sibbal and then the mutually considered roadmap will be placed before the court for Hon’ble Supreme Court’s approval. In that sense there has been a good development in the case and we can hope for an early resolution of a dispute.”
Earlier, the court ordered re-auction of a property in Ajmer after a buyer offering a better price emerged. While the property was sold for Rs 26 crore, Sahara claimed that a buyer named Rajinder Daga had offered to buy the property at Rs 41 crore and the real worth of the property was over Rs 160 crore. The income tax department, which has attached these properties, did not object to the sale per se but argued the money recovered from these properties be credited to it. Sebi counsel Datar pointed out that following the recent amendments in the Sebi Act, the regulator would have precedence over the amounts it recovered.
Earlier, Sahara had deposited Rs 200 crore towards the parole amount due on October 24. Sibal said Rs 130 crore came from the property in Versova and Rs 50 crore came from sale of a Chennai property.
