SC refuses to put Subrata in civil prison

Maintaining its tough stance, the Supreme Court on Wednesday refused to show any concession to Sahara chief Subrata Roy who wanted to be shifted to civil prison instead of jail to facilitate  negotiation with some “international buyer” for raising money to pay back Rs 20,000 crore.

A bench of Justices K S Radhakrishnan and J S Khehar declined the request saying that sending Roy to civil prison would amount to punishment.

“You are under our custody. You are under judicial custody. We cannot send you to civil prison as it would be a punishment,” the bench said.

The court was reacting to a plea made by senior advocate Ram Jethmalani who urged for directions to keep Roy and two other directors, Ashok Roy Chowdhary and Ravi Kant Dubey, under office arrest or house arrest to allow them to raise money.