Condoning Sahara group’s failure to deposit Rs1,500 crore into the Sebi-Sahara Refund account by June 15, the Supreme Court on Monday permitted it to make good a shortfall of Rs 710 crore by July 5 but with a warning, “If money does not come, Subrata Roy goes back to jail.”
On April 27, Sahara group and Roy had promised through senior advocate Kapil Sibal that they would pay Rs 1,500 crore by June 15 and another Rs 552 crore by July 15. As per the SC’s August 31, 2012 judgment, the outstanding in the name of Sahara group’s two companies – Real Estate and Housing – is still over Rs 10,000 crore despite the group paying nearly Rs 14,000 crore into the Sebi-Sahara account for refund to nearly three crore investors from whom it had illegally raised money by floating one-time fully convertible debentures (OFCDs).
Sibal explained the difficulty ed by the group in arranging faced by the group in arranging the money to a bench of Justices Deepak Misra and Ranjan Gogoi.
However, he promised, “We are here to honour the judgments of the court. We are not running away. We will pay it up fully and discharge our liabilities determined by the court. There is no lack of intent. We just need 10 working days to pay up the balance Rs 710 crore.” The group had earlier deposited Rs 790 crore in the Sebi-Sahara account.
Sibal also informed the court that the group had sold its stakes in Grosvenor House, London, to GH Equity UK Private Ltd and talks were on to sell two more overseas properties -The Plaza Hotel and Dream Downtown Hotel in New York.
Sibal also informed the court that land owned by the group in villages in Haridwar, with an estimated value of Rs 285 crore calculated using the circle rate, was fetching only Rs 109 crore. He sought permission to go ahead with the sale.
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