Don't try to take us for ride: Supreme Court warns Sahara

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Wednesday refused to lift travel restraints imposed on Sahara chief Subrata Roy despite the submission of title deeds for collateral worth Rs 20,000 crore, the money that two group companies need to pay Sebi. SC asked Roy to await the valuation of the market value of the properties by the market regulator.

"There's no reason why we should vary it," said a bench comprising justices KS Radhakrishnan and JS Khehar while asking Sahara to explain the source of the money that the firm claims to have so far repaid to investors. The refund details will have to be submitted by the next hearing of the case on Jan 9 2014.

Sahara claims to have returned more than Rs 19,000 crore to investors directly despite court orders to do it through Sebi. Wednesday's order came after Sebi counsel Arvind P Datar argued that Sahara's refund claims had been rejected by another bench of the court and had not been verified. "How did they refund? They claim to have disposed of properties and given the money to Sahara India, which handed it back to investors," he said. " Rs 19,000 crore is a colossal amount of money. What is the source? Where's the inflow and the outflow in the company's balance sheets?"

Roy is a 67% stakeholder in Sahara India, he pointed out. The court also declined to lift the freeze on accounts of all Sahara companies imposed early this month by banks at Sebi's request. "He (Roy) is not a judgement debtor. He can't be restrained from travelling," senior counsel MR Ganesh said.The bench didn't agree. "You can't get away by claiming that you submitted 135 truckloads of documents on refunds. This hide-and-seek game won't help you," the bench said.