JOIN USThe Supreme Court on Wednesday asked Sahara Group to pay Rs 10,000 crore – about half the amount due from two of its firms – to get interim bail for company chief Subrata Roy and two directors.
A bench of Justices K S Radhakrishnan and J S Khehar directed Sahara realty firms to deposit Rs 5,000 crore with the apex court registry and the remaining amount as a guarantee in a nationalised bank in favour of the Sebi for the release of Roy and others.
Sahara head Roy, along with two directors of his company Ravi Shankar Dubey and Ashok Roy Choudhary, was sent to judicial custody in Tihar jail on March 4 by the apex court after he failed to make a concrete proposal to refund Rs 20,000 crore of investors’ money.
The Supreme Court noted that Sahara Group “adopted various dilatory tactics” to avoid implementation of its orders passed on August 31 and December 5, 2012, and February 25, 2013, on making refunds.
Sahara firms had on Tuesday agreed before the Supreme Court to refund Rs 20,000 crore and submitted a proposal to pay it back in five instalments by March, 2015.
Passing an order on the fresh proposal, the apex court said: “We are inclined to grant interim bail to the contemnors who are detained by virtue of our order dated 04.03.2014, on the condition that they would pay the amount of Rs10,000 crore – out of which Rs 5,000 crore to be deposited before this court and for the balance a bank guarantee of a nationalised bank be furnished in favour of the Sebi and be deposited before this court.”
“We make it clear that this order is passed in order to facilitate the contemnors to further raise the balance amount so as to comply with the court’s orders,” the bench added.
The court put for consideration on Thursday the plea made by Sahara to defreeze its accounts.