Sahara seeks extension of communication facilities in Tihar jail

The Sahara Group Tuesday moved the Supreme Court seeking extension of communication facilities provided to its chief Subrata Roy to facilitate negotiations with other parties to raise Rs.10,000 crore after its deal with Mirach Group broke down.

Seeking four to six weeks time, senior counsel S. Ganesh told a bench headed by Justice T.S.Thakur they were working on three more deals for the sale of its assets to raise Rs.10,000 for the part payment of investors money - also a term for the release of Roy and two directors from custody.

Telling the court that they would be filing application for the extension of communication facilities later, he urged the court to hear the matter Friday as in pursuance to the court's earlier order the current duration for using communication facilities including telephones and internet was ending on Feb 20.

The court said that it would take all the deals by Sahara for raising the loans from overseas investors with a "pinch of salt" as Ganesh described as "most suitable" one of the possible deals with a Dutch friendship fund.

The court also sought greater involvement of its former judge, Justice B.N.Agarwal, in Sahara's efforts to raise the money, but also told Ganesh that when Sahara was finding it so difficult to raise Rs.10,000 crore, how it would raise the balance of Rs.30,000 crore.

Ganesh said that for the time being they were focused on raising Rs.10,000 crore.