The Supreme Court on Monday reserved its order on a plea by Sahara chief Subrata Roy, who sought release from jail promising to furnish an upfront payment of Rs 3,000 crore in cash within three days of his release.
Slapped with a condition by the Court to first furnish Rs 10,000 crore to prove his credentials for repayment of a sum of over Rs 20,000 crore to SEBI, Roy agreed to furnish the remaining sum of Rs 2,000 crore by May 30 and the remaining sum of Rs 5,000 crore by way of bank guarantee before June 20.
The fresh proposal came in addition to a petition filed by Roy challenging the March 4 order of the Court directing him and two of his Directors to remain in jail till its orders for payment of money was not complied with.
A bench of Justices KS Radhakrishnan and JS Khehar reserved the final verdict on the petition as well as the proposal submitted by Sahara after hearing counsels appearing for Roy, Sahara companies, and SEBI.
The proposal submitted by Roy's counsel and senior advocate N Ganesh gave an undertaking from Roy to deposit Rs 3,000 crore within three days of release from jail. Till date, Roy had offered an upfront amount of Rs 2,500 crore. While the initial payment would be raised by mopping up monies in Sahara’s bank accounts, it promised to raise bank guarantee by selling its properties in Pune, Gorakhpur, Ahmedabad, Jodhpur, Bhavnagar and Vadodara.
SEBI raised objections by pointing out that the proposal indicated that the company intended to raise cash from sale of certain properties, which would then be offered against bank guarantee. SEBI counsel insisted on furnishing of alternate properties as a safety net to ensure payment of the Rs 10,000 crore part payment.