Sahara chief Subrata Roy was arrested by the lucknow police from his house on Friday after evading for two days a non-bailable warrant issued by the Supreme Court for his failure to appear before it in a case of non-refund of Rs 20,000-crore to investors.
Roy will remain in police custody till March 4, when he has to be produced before the Supreme Court (SC).
He has been taken to a Forest Department guest house at Kukrail on the outskirts of lucknow. Roy’s family members were seen taking quilts and mattresses with them to make his stay there a bit comfortable.
Soon after his arrest in lucknow, Roy made two unsuccessful attempts to get an urgent hearing in the SC on his application to recall the non-bailable warrant (NBW) issued against him.
As the apex court began proceedings on Friday morning, senior advocate Ram Jethmalani approached a bench headed by Justice KS Radhakrishnan to take up the application for hearing.
The bench refused as the special bench of Justices Radhakrishnan and JS Khehar, which had heard the matter, could not be constituted on a short notice.
Roy had offered an unconditional apology and urged the court to recall Wednesday’s order issuing the NBW. Making an emotive appeal to the judges, Roy had said in the application that he was absent from court as he was with his 92-year-old mother who is on her deathbed and she wants her eldest son to remain by her side.
later in the day, the Sahara chief made yet another attempt to secure early hearing of his application. Just before Justice Radhakrishnan was about to leave senior advocate Ravi Shankar Prasad appeared for Roy to request the court to reassemble for five minutes.
The court turned down the plea, leaving no option for Roy but to remain in police custody till his production in court on March 4.
Earlier, a police team from Gomti Nagar, lucknow, arrested Roy from his house in the morning and later produced him in the court of Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJM), lucknow.
SHO Ajit Singh Chauhan produced Roy at the court at 5.30 pm on Friday requesting the court for further direction in this regard. The SHO also submitted the SC’s order with a letter dated February 26 sent to the police by SC Registrar Sanjeev Jain.
Appearing on behalf of Roy, his counsel VK Sahi said Roy had deep respect for the law of the country and he had duly informed the police about his presence at the house in compliance with the SC’s order.
CJM, Anand Kumar ordered the Gomti Nagar Police to keep Roy in custody for four days and authorised them to produce Roy in the SC by 2 pm on March 4.
Earlier, a police team reached Sahara Shaher in Vipul Khand around 10 am on information of Roy’s presence at his house and informed him of the apex court’s order. The police said Roy told the cops that he was not at home due to some pressing engagement. “Roy gave an undertaking to the police stating that he was a law abiding citizen and he had not intended to overrule the court’s order or nor did he want to escape being taken into police custody,” the police said.