The Supreme Court on Thursday allowed the Sahara Group to approach its creditor Bank of China for selling equities in three offshore hotels to raise money that can help its jailed chief Subrata Roy get bail.
The court, however, reserved its order on a fresh plea of Roy seeking modification of an earlier order by which he was asked to pay Rs5,000 crore in cash besides a bank guarantee of an equivalent amount.Sahara, in its fresh proposal, said it would like to deposit Rs3,000 crore cash in five days and another Rs2,000 crore in next 30 days thereafter. The group would be furnishing a bank guarantee for the rest of Rs5,000 crore in 60 days after selling its equities in hotels, one in london and two in New York, the group said.
The bench of Justices TS Thakur and AK Sikri, which has been constituted after Justice JS Kehar recused from hearing, said Saharas would be communicating with Bank of China, which had lent money to it for purchasing substantial equities in offshore hotels and file an affidavit within a week about the outcome of the communication.
“We are inclined to allow you to sell the nine properties (listed by the company). We are also inclined to allow you to mortgage the Ambey valley for raising the money,” the bench said at the fag end of the over three-hour-long hearing.
Earlier, the bench had asked Sahara, who is in jail since March 4, to pay Rs5,000 crore cash and furnish a bank guarantee of Rs5,000 crore as pre-condition for his release. Senior Advocate Raj-iv Dhawan, said that it was quite ‘improbable’ to arrange the bank guarantee without selling its shares in the offshore hotels and the group has communicated with Bank of China.