Sahara group hearing put off; Roy to remain in jail

In another setback to Sahara group chief Subrata Roy, the Supreme Court on Monday deferred hearing his case slated for Tuesday, apparently in the absence of any concrete refund proposal. This could prolong Roy's stay in the jail indefinitely.

On Friday, the apex court had asked the Sahara group to come with an "honourable proposal" for depositing Rs 20,000 crore of investors' money and posted the hearing to Tuesday.

His lawyers were also told they could raise the issue of Roy's request to be sent into police custody be taken up on Tuesday.

The cause list put on the apex court's website on Monday, however, showed the case, listed before a bench of judges K S Radhakrishnan and J S Khehar, "stands deleted and the same is adjourned".

The reason for the adjournment has not been disclosed and the Sahara group's lawyer expressed surprise over it. The group might mention the issue on Tuesday before an appropriate bench to get the matter listed at the earliest.

The judges had on
March 4 sent Roy and two directors, Ravi Shankar Dubey and Ashok Roy Choudhary, to judicial custody till Tuesday, while expressing unhappiness over the Sahara group's proposal on the refund, which offered to pay Rs 2,500 crore in three days and the rest in five instalments by the end of July next year.

Seaplane grounded
Our Mumbai bureau reports the launch of the Mumbai-Aamby Valley (near Pune) seaplane service, slated to begin on Monday, has been postponed. Operator Maritime Energy Heli Air Services said the Sahara group, owner of Aamby Valley, had asked the launch be put off for now.