 "The Sahara group chairman Subrata Roy (C) is escorted by police to a court")
In a major relief to Sahara chief Subrata Roy, the Supreme Court on Monday extended his interim bail and ordered him to pay Rs 600 crore to the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) by February 6, 2017.
During the hearing, Roy's counsel Kapil Sibal proposed to the three-judge bench, headed by Chief Justice of India Tirath Singh Thakur, to pay Rs 11,000 crore within a period of two-and-a- half years.
"You have property worth Rs 1 lakh 87000 crore money of property, but still you were unable to pay," the bench said.
In October, the Supreme Court had extended his parole till November 28 taking note of the deposit of Rs 200 crores made by him with SEBI as a condition precedent for his release.
Roy was in Tihar jail since March 4, 2014, till his mother's death on May 6, 2016, for not complying with the apex court's orders in connection with a long dispute with the market regulator.
The SEBI alleged that Roy allegedly failed to comply with 2012 apex court order directing him to return investors, more than Rs 20,000 crore with 15% interest that his two companies Sahara India Real Estate Corp Ltd and the Sahara Housing Finance Corp Ltd had raised through optionally fully convertible debentures (OFCD) in 2007 and 2008.
On May 6, 2016, the apex court had granted four weeks' custody parole to Roy to perform his mother's (Chabbi Roy) last rites.
Roy's mother Chhabi Roy, 95, passed away in Lucknow on May 6 this year after a prolonged illness for over three years.
Sahara, once one of India's most high-profile firms, had in the past made several failed attempts to raise the bail money using its prized overseas hotels that include the Plaza in New York and Grosvenor House in London.
Sahara says it has paid more than 80 per cent of the dues to shareholders, but the market regulator, SEBI, disputes that and said the Saharas have not paid more than Rs 10,000 crores.
