Supreme Court denies bail to Sahara supremo Subrata Roy

The Supreme Court today denied the bail application of Sahara supremo Subrata Roy, who has been held in jail for more than four months over his group’s failure to repay investors who bought bonds that were later ruled to be illegal.

The apex court said, “negotiations for selling properties in India can be done during the day and court will facilitate.” “We will allow you to hold negotiations outside jail between 10 AM to 4 PM under police custody,” a bench headed by Justice T S Thakur said, adding it is “premature” at this stage to make such arrangement as there is no “concrete” proposal right now.

The bench, also comprising justices Anil R Dave and A K Sikri asked him to approach the court when there is a proposal and assured him that suitable arrangements would be made by it. Sahara, whose assets include the landmark Plaza hotel in New York and Grosvenor House in London, offered to sell its three overseas hotels to meet the payment demands.

The court said it had sought more information from Sahara, including approval from Bank of China, with which the assets are pledged. Sahara Chairman Subrata Roy has been in a Delhi jail since March 4 after failing to appear at a contempt hearing in a long-running legal battle between his group and the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI).

The court, which had put Sahara’s liability was between Rs 33,000 crore to Rs 35,000 crore, had asked Sahara to deposit Rs 10,000 crore initially to secure the release of Roy on bail.