SC asks Subrata Roy to appear in court over failure of two Sahara companies to pay Rs 19,000 crore

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Thursday asked Sahara India chairman Subrata Roy to appear in person in court to explain the failure of two companies to pay up Rs 19,000 cr by way of dues to be paid to investors to market regulator sebi.

A bench, comprising justices K S Radhakrishnan and JS Khehar, asked Roy and three other directors Ashoka Roy Choudhary, Ravi Shankar Dubey, Bandana Bhargava, to be present in court in Feb 26, 2014.

"All the directors be present here," the bench said.

The order came after Sahara raised objections to a court suggestion to let sebi sell off some of the land of other Sahara companies to recover the amount.

"You won't pay. You won't allow to recover. Let them appear here. We will let them know where know where such directors should be," the bench said.

The court had directed Sahara to pay Rs 24,000 cr on August 31, 2012. But Sahara has so far only paid Rs 5206 cr. It is claiming that it has paid up all the rest to investors in cash directly, a claim sebi has been contesting. The court order was to return the money to investors through sebi.