SC rejects Roy's plea for house arrest, lifts curbs on sale of

In a setback to Sahara chief Subrata Roy, who is in jail for the last three months, the Supreme Court today dismissed his plea to be put under house arrest but allowed the group to sell properties to mobilise Rs.5,000 crore in cash and an equal amount in bank guarantee for securing his release.
"The prayer for shifting the contemnor outside the jail is dismissed," a bench of justices T S Thakur and A K Sikri said while reading the operative parts of the judgement that dealt with the modifications of the earlier order.
The Sahara chief, who is in Delhi's Tihar jail since March 4, was earlier directed by the apex court to pay Rs 5,000 crore in cash and furnish a bank guarantee of Rs 5,000 crore as pre-condition for his release.

Sahara group has been given a go ahead to sell immovable properties in nine cities here, the bench said in its verdict today and made it clear that they will not be sold below the circle rate and buyers should not be "connected or related" to the group.
The sale proceeds will be deposited in a separate bank account, maintained by market regulator SEBI, which, in turn, will release the title deeds of the properties in favour of the purchasers, it said.
The bench also lifted the curb put on encashment of Sahara group's fixed deposits and bonds and said that they will also be kept by the market regulator.

Dealing with the issue of sale of equities held by Sahara group in three offshore hotels, the bench said it is keeping the issue open as the group has to file an affidavit relating to its communication with the Bank of China which had lent it money.

The bench, which allowed Sahara group to mortgage its properties in Aamby valley in Pune for arranging the bank guarantee, said that the guarantee, to be furnished, either be given from a nationalized or a scheduled bank. It said bank guarantee of a cooperative bank will not "suffice".
The bench rejected the fresh proposal of Sahara group about the payment schedule under which the group said it would like to deposit Rs 3,000 crore cash in five days and another Rs 2,000 crore in cash in the next 30 days thereafter.

The group would be furnishing a bank guarantee for the rest of Rs 5,000 crore in 60 days after selling its equities in hotels, one in London and two in New York, it said.