Sahara Group chairman Subrata Roy will remain in Tihar Prisons till Tuesday after the Supreme Court rejected his company’s latest offer to pay a portion of the outstanding sum of Rs17,400 crore in increasing instalments over 15 months.
Problems further compounded for the company as SEBI informed the court on Friday that the total amount due against Sahara was Rs37,500 crore. This amount was arrived at by calculating the 15 per cent interest component promised by the two Sahara firms.
Sahara claimed that it was liable to pay a sum of over Rs28,000 crore out of which it had already deposited with SEBI a lump sum of Rs5,619 crore (including interest component). On the earlier date it offered bank guarantee of Rs22,500 crore.
With the Sahara chief and two of the company directors jailed, senior advocate CA Sundaram informed the court that out of the Rs17,400 crore on offer, an upfront amount of Rs2,500 crore will be paid within three days of court lifting restriction on operation of bank accounts of the firms. The remaining amount will be paid in five ascending installments, each after an interval of three months.
Rejecting the offer, the bench of Justices KS Radhakrishnan and JS Khehar demanded a more “attractive” sum to be paid upfront by Tuesday. “In the facts of this case we cannot accept your proposal,” the bench said, adding “It’s a big insult to us. You should not have made the Supreme Court assemble if you did not have a better proposal.”
Earlier in the day, when Sahara mentioned the matter in Court, the bench had observed that the proposal must be attractive. “This is a dishonourable proposal,” said the bench, rejecting the offer.
lawyers for Sahara pointed out that there was little they could do as the chairman who could locate funds was in jail. “We can arrange meetings with your directors in jail but you must pay,” the court said. It ordered jail authorities to let company’s finance consultants and lawyers to meet Roy from 10 am to 12 noon each day. His request for being shifted to custody within a police station was also postponed for Tuesday giving no option to Sahara chief but to remain in jail.