Sahara chief Subrata Roy's immediate release from Tihar jail remained uncertain as the Supreme Court today declined to relax the conditions for interim bail like depositing Rs 5000 crore in cash and a bank guarantee of equal amount and set more tough terms including payment of the entire Rs 36,000 crore in 18 months.
Immediately after a bench of justices T S Thakur, A R Dave and A K Sikri pronounced the judgement, Roy's counsel Kapil Sibal sought clarification asking "whether the release is conditional on furnishing bank guarantee".
The bench replied in the affirmative saying "it is subject to deposit of Rs 5000 crore in cash and Rs 5000 crore in bank guarantee as per the March 26, 2014 order".
Sibal said the group was unable to secure the bank guarantee as the financial institution which had agreed to furnish it has backed out when SEBI insisted on fixation of the "trigger point" for enchashing it.
"Trigger point has to be there," the bench said and clarified to Sibal that the period of 18 months will start from the date of his release after he fulfils the bail condition.
And on release if Roy fails to adhere to meet the time frame for depositing money or defaults in payment with SEBI, he will have to surrender to custody, the court further said.
Sibal said it was difficult to secure a bank guarantee of Rs 5000 crore and wanted it to be reduced to Rs 4000 crore.
The bench asked him to file an application in this regard and suggested that instead of RS 5,000 crore in cash, Sahara should deposit Rs 6,000 crore in cash.
