Sahara chief Subrata Roy secures a week’s parole for Rs353 cr

Sahara Group chief Subrata Roy has deposited Rs353 crore in the Sebi-Sahara account for an extension of the parole granted to him on humanitarian grounds after his mother passed away. The Supreme Court on Friday extended his parole until 23 September after Sahara Group deposited the amount.

Chief Justice T S Thakur in-chamber announced the decision to extend the relief granted to 68-year-old Roy in the absence of the other two judges of the regular Special Bench - Justices A R Dave and A K Sikri.

Sahara's counsel Keshav Mohan said that a draft of Rs353 crore was deposited in the SEBI-Sahara account ahead of the deadline that ended on Friday.

The Supreme Court had, on 2 September, asked the Sahara Group to come clean by disclosing sources of raising Rs25,000 crore to repay investors in cash. The bench found it difficult to believe that the group that could not raise Rs10,000 crore to secure bail for its CEO, managed to raise as much as Rs25,000 crore in a few months that Subrata Roy was out on parole.

The court had granted parole to Roy on May 6 for four weeks on humanitarian grounds following the death of his mother Chhabi Roy in Lucknow. Again, on 3 August, it had extended Roy's parole till Friday (16 September) with a condition that he has to deposit to Rs300 crore with Sebi.

The apex court had allowed Roy to meet prospective buyers of properties and move within the country under police escort since 6 May.

Roy has been lodged in Tihar jail since 4 March 2014, on the orders of the apex court in connection with a long-running dispute with market regulator Sebi over illegally raising nearly Rs20,000 crore from millions of small investors.

Sahara group has been granted permission for sale and alienation of its properties to raise an amount of Rs5,000 crore as bank guarantee which it had to deposit in addition to Rs5,000 crore to get bail for Roy.

For the Sahara chief's interim bail, the court had put conditions like depositing Rs 5,000 crore in cash and a bank guarantee of equal amount and tough terms, including payment of the entire Rs 36,000 crore, which includes interest, to be paid back to the investors.

The Sahara chief had earlier told the court that by December, the group would be in a position to fulfill all conditions and talks were underway with Canara Bank for Rs1,500 crore bank guarantee.