 "Subrata Roy, Sahara")
The Supreme Court on Wednesday extended the parole of Sahara chief Subrata Roy till September 16 with a condition that he has to deposit to Rs 300 crore with Security and Exchange Board of India (Sebi).
The direction for depositing the amount came after Roy complied with the order of July 11 by which he was asked to deposit the balance of Rs 300 crore, out of the Rs 500 crore promised by him when he was granted parole on humanitarian grounds following the death of his mother.
The court also asked the 68-year-old Sahara chief that apart from the Rs 200 crore remaining amount, an additional Rs 100 crore should be deposited by him.
Taking note that Roy has deposited Rs 300.68 crore, a bench headed by Chief Justice T S Thakur extended his parole and gave him the opportunity to raise the remaining amount to secure bail in the case.
The bench, also comprising Justices A R Dave and A K Sikri, has allowed the Sahara group to go ahead with sale and alienation of their properties to raise an amount of Rs 5,000 crore as a bank guarantee which they have to deposit in addition to Rs 5,000 crore to get bail for Roy.
During the hearing, the bench made it clear that failure to deposit Rs 300 crore by the next date of hearing would lead to Roy going back to the jail.
The hearing also saw Sebi telling the bench that till now Rs 195.07 crore has been generated by it by selling Sahara properties through e-auction.
However, senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for Roy, complained that the properties sold through the platform of e-auction has fetched less money than desired and sought a direction to Sebi to take some of the properties out of e-auction.
The bench accepted the request and said that Sahara would inform Sebi in advance before the second round of e-auction about the properties the group desires to take out of the platform for negotiating on its own with the prospective buyers.
It said other properties would have to be sold through e-auction and prospective buyers have to participate in it.
When it was repeatedly argued by Sibal the need for pulling out the properties from e-auction, the bench warned him, saying, "Don't play games here with us."
"We are tired of all your games. Don't show all these difficulties," the bench observed.
Sebi said it has already sold eight properties of Sahara for Rs 195.07 crore and gave the nod for selling the remaining 50 properties through e-auction.
