No takers for Sahara's Aamby Valley properties: Official liquidator tells SC

The auctioning process of Sahara group's prized Aamby Valley properties was put off by the Supreme Court today after it was informed that the auction notice had failed to elicit any response from prospective buyers.

A special bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra was informed about this by the official liquidator of the Bombay High Court, which was earlier directed to go ahead with the auctioning of these properties to realise the money of the investors.

The bench, which also comprised Justices Ranjan Gogoi and A K Sikri, then agreed to the submission of senior advocate Vikas Singh, the counsel for Sahara Group, that the court-appointed receiver of the Aamby Valley properties and the Official Liquidator be discharged of their duties.

Besides putting off the auctioning process, the bench directed two firms -- Sai Rydam Realtors Private limited and Prime Down Town Real Estate Private limited-- to deposit Rs 1,000 crore with the SEBI-Sahara account after the Sahara group submitted that the firms were willing to purchase their property at Vasai near Mumbai.

The Sahara Group said the sale of its Vasai property could fetch Rs 1,000 crore which would be deposited in the SEBI-Sahara account.

The bench then asked the two firms to deposit a demand draft of Rs 99 crore today itself and gave a time-line for depositing the remaining amount.

It asked the two firms to deposit Rs 200 crore by August 15 and Rs 682.8 crore by September 12, while cautioning them that any default would amount to contempt and the deposited amount would be forfeited.

On being informed that the Sahara group has already sold its hotel in New York, the bench asked the company to file an affidavit giving details about the sale and the use of the money thereafter.

The Sahara group informed the bench that the hotel was mortgaged with the Bank of China at its London branch and undertook to file a detailed affidavit in this regard.

At the outset, Singh said that SEBI should be directed to conduct a verification drive for investors, as the group has already paid around Rs 20,000 crore with the SEBI-Sahara account.

The bench said it would consider this later after the money is deposited with the SEBI-Sahara account.

Later, the Sahara group in a statement said, "Today, the court has agreed to remove the Receiver and Official liquidator from Aamby Valley and has also ordered that all documents and papers pertaining to Aamby Valley to be given back to Sahara and Sahara can start operations in Aamby Valley."
"Let SEBI meanwhile start verification of investors. Once verification is done, Sahara would get back the said amount with interest. He stated when this court has directed SEBI for verification, why SEBI is not starting the verification process."