Raise money or stay in jail: SC to Sahara chief

The new SC Bench told Sahara chief Subrata Roy to bring a "logically acceptable, specific proposal" to raise Rs 10,000 cr for bail

The new Supreme Court Bench hearing Sahara Group chief Subrata Roy’s application to release him from judicial custody at the city’s Tihar jail declined his request on Monday.

It also told him to bring a “logically acceptable, specific proposal” to raise Rs 10,000 crore for bail.

Since the two judges cannot sit together for at least a week, due to previous engagements during the summer vacation, a new date to hear the case will be announced next week.

Roy and two directors will remain in jail till then; they were sent to custody on March 4, for repeatedly stalling SC orders to repay all the depositors in certain controversial investment schemes. The Group had claimed to have already done so and this was rejected as specious.

The new Bench of judges T S Thakur and A K Sikri heard Roy’s counsel, A M Singhvi, who sought 60 days to arrange the amount demanded by the court. He earnestly pleaded for a “window of exit”, saying “if he (Roy) did not raise the required money, he is prepared to go back to jail voluntarily”.

Unless he was out of prison, he’d not be able to sell the properties needed and get bank guarantees, explained Singhvi; “it is a classic case of a vicious circle”.

The Group has only Rs 2,500 crore in liquid cash in the banks, the judges were told.

The Bench then repeatedly asked counsel how the group claimed it had repaid all 30 million investors in the case in question in cash and within two years. “Was the money kept in gunny bags?” asked one judge. The Bench asked him to specify who the investors were, as the earlier judgment had observed there were no real depositors. Counsel said all the money was collected in cash and returned in cash through some 4,000 branches.

Rajeev Dhavan, representing the directors in jail,   expressed ‘anguish’ at the remarks by the  earlier Bench in its judgment which rejected the challenge to their detention. He said he hadn’t meant any insult to the court and apologised if his arguments had hurt anyone.

The earlier Bench had passed several remarks against the lawyers arguing the case. K S Radhakrishnan, who has since retired, had remarked during his farewell function that his family and he had been subjected to “unimaginable pressure” during the case.

The other judge, J S Khehar, has declined to hear any further case involving the Sahara companies and directors.