Sahara chief seeks 15 more days from Supreme Court to sell properties

NEW DELHI: The Sultan of Brunei’s support for anti-gay laws may have delayed Subrata Roy’s plans to get out of jail. After news leaked that the Sultan was interested in buying Sahara’s hotels in London and New York, there were protests in the British capital and elsewhere over Brunei’s anti-gay stance that prevented a deal from taking place, the group told the Supreme Court on Friday.

For that reason, Sahara said it wanted another 15 days for its jailed chief Subrata Roy to strike deals to raise the Rs 10,000 crore needed to set him free. The amount has been stipulated by the Supreme Court, which has allowed Roy and his team to use a conference facility in Tihat jail to conduct negotiations. An application seeking the extension was mentioned by Sahara lawyer MS Ganesh before a bench led by justice TS Thakur.

Sahara has meanwhile approached other interested parties for a possible sale of the three properties—Grosvenor House in London and the Plaza and Dream hotels in New York.

Thakur indicated he would hear the plea on Monday if other judges on the bench were available. Roy's stay in the conference complex is set to end on September 9 after one extension. The court told Sahara last time that it shouldn’t seek a second extension for Roy. The Sahara boss was remanded to jail for failing to pay Rs 24000 crore by way of dues.