SC extends Subrata's parole if he deposits Rs.200 crore

In a relief that has eluded Sahara chief Subrata Roy for over two years, the Supreme Court on Wednesday extended his parole till July 11, if he promises to deposit Rs.200 crore with market regulator SEBI by then.

The top court had on May 6 granted four weeks of parole to the jailed Roy and his son-in-law Ashok Roy Choudhary to attend the last rites of his mother who passed away on the night of May 5.

Giving one more chance to Roy to prove his credentials, the apex court bench of Chief Justice T.S. Thakur, Justice Anil R. Dave and Justice A.K. Sikri cautioned him that if he failed to deposit Rs.200 crore with SEBI, he would be back in Tihar Jail.

The request to deposit Rs.200 crore by July 11 is over and above Sahara's 60 properties that market regulator SEBI is putting on block.

"We're inclined to give one chance to Subrata Roy and Ashok Roy Choudhary to make good their word by July 11 and show us their bonafides," the court said, accepting the plea by senior counsel Kapil Sibal.

The court ordered the extension of the ongoing parole after Sibal urged the judges to give Roy a chance to deposit Rs.200 crore if his parole was extended till July 11.

Urging the court for a sympathetic consideration of his plea, Sibal told the court that Roy would not flee.

Roy and two other directors, Ravi Shankar Dubey and Ashok Roy Choudhary, are in judicial custody since March 4, 2014 for the failure of Sahara group's two companies - Sahara India Real Estate Corporation (SIRECL) and Sahara Housing Investment Corp Ltd (SHICL) - to comply with the court's August 31, 2012 order.

The top court had that day directed SIRECL and SHICL to return investors money they had collected through OFCDs (Optionally Fully Convertible Debentures) in 2008 and 2009.

The apex court March 26, 2014 had said Sahara Group would deposit Rs.10,000 crore as part payment of investors' Rs.24,000 crore that its two companies collected as a condition for the release of Roy, Dubey and Choudhary.

According to market regulator SEBI, this amount now stands at about Rs.38,000 crore.

--IANS

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