Sahara’s Roy moves to Tihar conference room, aims to sell hotels

A number of people including the staff of Sahara on Tuesday visited their chief Subrata Roy at the conference room of Tihar Jail, which has been declared a "special jail" for negotiations with potential buyers of Roy's overseas properties.

The Supreme Court has set his bail amount at a hefty Rs10,000 crore, which he can't raise without selling his hotels abroad.

Tihar Jail officials said that Roy with two of his Sahara directors, Ashok Roy Choudhary and Ravi Shankar Dubey who were lodged in the same prison, were transferred to the conference room around 7 am amid high security.

A number of people today visited the Sahara chief but it is not clear whether Roy had prospective buyers or sale negotiators visiting him, reports said.

Roy's steno, secretarial assistants and one technical assistant were also allowed to help him during the allowed time-slot of 6 am to 8 pm on all working days.

The meetings held at the conference room will be under the surveillance of CCTV cameras.

As per the relaxation given by the Supreme Court, Roy will stay in the conference room that has been declared "special jail" for the next ten days to negotiate sale of his hotels abroad.

The 65-year-old Roy will be using the fully air-conditioned room with services like wi-fi and video-conferencing. He has also been allowed two laptops, two desktops, landline phones and one mobile phone.

"Adequate security arrangements have been made. The meetings will be under surveillance of CCTV cameras. All visitors coming to meet Roy are being thoroughly frisked. He was moved with his two directors to the conference room early morning today for the next ten days.

"He will be given jail food. Canteen food has also been allowed for him and his visitors. All the rules of jail will apply for his stay in the conference room as it did earlier," an official said.

Roy has been lodged in Tihar Jail since 4 March this year. He was arrested over his group's failure to pay back thousands of investors who were sold bonds of over Rs20,000 crore. The court had asked Sahara to deposit Rs10,000 crore initially to secure the release of Roy on bail.

Earlier, Roy was allowed to meet visitors only twice a week and was allowed phone calls only from the Jail's telephone booth. His son and company's senior officers were among his regular visitors.