The Supreme Court on Tuesday refused to grant bail to Sahara chief Subrata Roy and even turned down a request to temporarily release him on parole leaving him in an embarrassing position to negotiate sale of his offshore hotel properties in police custody.
The 65-year old corporate czar, however, got some relief as the Court agreed to allow sale of his properties situated in the US and UK to generate a sum of Rs 10,000 crore to be paid to SEBI as a condition for his bail. But in doing so, the Court imposed a condition that the sale should not be anything below five per cent of the value estimated by the company or independent valuer. As the foreign properties belonging to Saharas are mortgaged with Bank of China, the Court directed that upon sale, after meeting the loan obligation with Bank of China, the remaining amount would be deposited in a separate account with SEBI.
The bench of Justices TS Thakur, AR Dave and AK Sikri allowed Roy to approach the Court as and when a negotiation on any property intended for sale was arranged. The Court said it will consider passing an order to facilitate meeting with the prospective buyers for six hours, preferably in a guest house of Roy’s choice. The bench felt it was “pre-mature” to make any arrangement for any negotiations as “there is no concrete proposal with Saharas for sale of their properties situated in India or abroad.” Roy’s alternate prayer for medical bail was rejected by Court as it found “nothing to show that Subrata Roy Sahara suffers from any serious medical condition.” The Court expected jail doctors to provide necessary medical aid required by Roy. Senior advocate Rajeev Dhavan who argued for Sahara told Court that the order “astonished” him as he was “deeply pained” on being denied even interim bail despite putting in Rs 3000 crore till date with SEBI in good faith.