Sahara group submits details of all properties

Sahara group on Thursday submitted details of its domestic and overseas assets, in a sealed envelope, as directed by the Supreme Court. The move, which comes a day after the court granted two months' parole to Sahara Group chairman Subrata Roy, could secure Sahara the Apex Court's confidence

The apex court had earlier directed the Sahara group to furnish details of all its properties in order to ascertain whether they are sufficient for paying back the entire amount due to investors.

Meanwhile, the Supreme Court had also granted permission to Sahara chief Subrata Roy to meet prospective buyers of properties and move within the country in police escort as per the 6 May order.

However, the court had made it clear that the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) would continue with the auction of properties of Sahara for recovering investor money.

The Supreme Court also yesterday extended Roy's parole till 11 July to enable him to deposit Rs200 crore with Sebi, even as the bench headed by Chief Justice T S Thakur directed Roy and Sahara Group director Ashok Roy Choudhary, who are on parole since 6 May to furnish individual undertaking to prove their "bona fides" and seriousness.

Roy has been in Tihar jail since 4 March 2014 for failure to return over Rs25,000 crore to millions of small investors despite repeated court orders in a long-drawn dispute with market regulator Sebi.

"We are inclined to give one chance to Subrata Roy and Ashok Roy Choudhary to prove their offer to deposit Rs200 crore by 11 July.

"We, accordingly, direct that the May 6 order would continue till July 11 subject to the individual undertaking being furnished by them," the bench, also comprising justices A R Dave and A K Sikri, said.

If they fail to deposit Rs200 crore to Sebi by 11 July, they will have to surrender and go back to Tihar jail, the court said in its order.

The bench also said Saharas can also go ahead with the sale and alienation of their other properties to raise the amount of Rs5,000 crore as a bank guarantee they have to deposit in addition to Rs5,000 crore to get bail.

Sebi senior counsel Arvind Datar did not object to the submission of senior advocates Kapil Sibal and Rajeev Dhawan on behalf of Roy.

However, senior advocate Shekhar Naphade, who has been appointed amicus curiae in the matter to assist the court, said there are questions as to why Sahara was averse to sale of Aamby Valley and overseas hotels.