The Supreme Court on Monday attached Sahara’s prime property Aamby Valley in Pune and directed the company to submit a list of properties for public auction to raise Rs 14,000 crore to be deposited with and Securities Exchange Board of India (SEBI).
Not satisfied by the blueprint submitted by Sahara chief Subrata Roy, who gave the timeline of July 2019 to pay up the principal amount of Rs 14,779 crore to the SEBI, the Bench of Justices Dipak Misra, Ranjan Gogoi and AK Sikri said, “Don’t be under the impression that we will accept your roadmap. Either you speed up or we will go for public auction of your properties.”
Senior advocate Kapil Sibal who appeared for Roy said he was cooperating with the court’s order in making periodic payments but cited demonetisation as a cause for low liquidity in market for buyers to come up with good offers. The Bench said it wished to get the entire money at a go and sought a list of those properties which face no legal hurdle or are not mortgaged in order to fetch a good price in public auction.
To ensure compliance of its order, the Bench decided to attach the prime property of Sahara located at Aamby Valley, Pune which is a substantial property worth over Rs 38,000 crore. The Bench said, “If you have got Aamby Valley why do we require a list of properties.” But Sahara objected to which the Bench attached the said property in order to secure a list of other properties for auction.