SC ends Sahara chief Subrata Roy’s parole, sends him back to jail

The Supreme Court has ended the parole of Sahara Group chief Subrata Roy and directed police to take him back into custody. Roy was out on parole since May, after spending two years in Delhi's Tihar Jail.

"You are going back to jail," the court said today, rejecting a plea by Roy's lawyers to extend parole for some more time. The 68-year-old head of the Sahara group had been granted parole when his mother died in May this year, and it had been extended several times since, the last for a week on 16 September to enable him to raise money to refund his investors.

Roy has been in jail from 4 March 2914 in a contempt of court case.

Rajeev Dhavan, the lawyer for Roy, termed the court's statement as "unfair", arguing that Sahara couldn't sell its properties as they had been attached by the Securities and Exchange Board of India. The judges, however, did not accept Dhawan's arguments.

"Don't tell us what to do. Interim arrangement stands cancelled. Take Roy and two others (directors of Sahara group) be taken back to custody, " the bench headed by Chief Justice T S Thakur said.

The top court had earlier this month asked the Sahara Group to disclose how it had raised Rs25,000 crore to pay back its investors in cash as it claimed, observing that it was "difficult to digest" as such a huge amount "cannot fall from the heavens".

The court had also directed Sebi to look into how Sahara was raising money through the sale of its property abroad, promising to "close this entire Pandora's box if you show us the source of refund".

In this long-running case, the Supreme Court had ordered Sahara in August 2012 to deposit with capital market regulator Sebi over Rs24,000 crore collected from nearly three crore investors through issuance of various bonds.

On 26 August Roy offered to pay an additional Rs300 crore to Sebi but said that this amount should be adjusted as bank guarantee that he required to furnish for a regular bail.

''I am ready to pay additional Rs300 crore but this amount should be adjusted as a bank guarantee,'' Sibal told the bench that also comprised Justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud.

On 3 August, the Supreme Court had extended Roy's parole on the condition that he deposit Rs300 crore more with the Sebi. Roy was given parole in May with a stipulation of depositing Rs500 crore with Sebi for refunding investors by August first week.