Supreme Court gives one more week to Subrata Roy to surrender

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday granted one more week to Sahara chief Subrata Roy to surrender and return to judicial custody.

Besides Roy, other two Sahara directors, Ashok Roy Choudhary and Ravi S. Dubey, will also have to surrender within a week.

The apex court has agreed to hear on 3 October a fresh plea of Roy and others with regard to grant of bail.

Earlier on Friday, the Supreme Court ordered cancellation of parole granted to Roy.

A bench comprising Chief Justice T.S. Thakur, justices Anil.R. Dave and A.K. Sikri said that their May order granting him parole shall stand terminated. This means that Roy could be taken into custody immediately.

“Interim arrangement stands cancelled. Let him go back,” the court said.

The court was hearing Roy’s plea for extending parole that expires on Friday. The hearing on 18 September was deferred as the bench did not sit.

Senior advocate Rajeev Dhawan informed the court that an additional ₹ 300 crore had been deposited by Sahara with the court.

Also Read: Sebi moves SC for completion of sale of Sahara’s assets of phase-I auction

Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) also told the court that certain properties that are being auctioned have run into trouble as tax departments have attached the properties.

Roy was granted parole in May after he had been in judicial custody since 4 March 2014 along with two of his associates for failing to deliver on promises made to return the money two Sahara firms collected from depositors.

On 26 March that year, the court set the bail amount at an unprecedented ₹ 10,000 crore—half in cash and half as a bank guarantee.

Also Read: SC extends Subrata Roy’s parole till 23 September

In March, Sahara completed the cash payment of ₹ 5,000 crore towards bail for Roy and the two associates, and only the bank guarantee of ₹ 5,000 crore is pending.

Sebi moved the apex court in August 2012 to recover ₹ 36,000 crore from Sahara to refund investors who purchased securities from two group firms through schemes that the market regulator found illegal.

Sebi asked the court to appoint a receiver who would dispose of Sahara’s domestic and offshore properties and raise the money.

(Sahara has filed a defamation case in a Patna court against Mint’s editor and some reporters over the newspaper’s coverage of the company’s dispute with the Securities and Exchange Board of India. Mint is contesting the case.)