Sahara offers fresh proposals, SC seeks Sebi response

The embattled Sahara Group on Tuesday came up with a fresh proposal before the Supreme Court for the sale of its assets to raise bail for the release of its jailed chief Subrata Roy.

A bench comprising Chief Justice T S Thakur and Justices A R Dave and A K Sikri sought a response from the Securities and Exchange Board of India to the proposals within four weeks.

Sahara's counsel, senior advocate Kapil Sibal, said the group was in negotiations to sell its Mumbai hotel Sahara Star, the company's 42-per cent stake in India's Formula 1 circuit, and four aircraft.

Further, the Group said negotiations were under way to sell three overseas hotels, Grosvenor House Hotel in London, the New York Plaza and Dream New York hotels.

The counsel said Grosvenor House Hotel is being negotiated for sale with the State of Qatar, which will fetch around Rs2,300 crore.

Further, the group says it has convinced a Russian bank to re-finance its two hotels in the United States.

Sahara also sought permission to sell its properties in Bangalore.

The group has to arrange Rs36,000 crore for making payment in the SEBI-Sahara account for refunding the money to its investors.

For the interim bail of 67-year-old Roy, the court had put conditions including depositing Rs5,000 crore in cash and a bank guarantee of equal amount and tough terms including payment of the entire Rs36,000 crore including interest. The money will be paid back to the investors of Sahara.

Roy has been in jail since 4 March 2014 with two other directors of Sahara companies -- Ravi Shankar Dubey and Ashok Roy Choudhary.