Tihar conference room declared special jail for Sahara chief Subrata Roy

NEW DELHI Sahara chief Subrata Roy will stay for 10 working days in a conference room inside Tihar jail complex which will be specially-designated a jail to help him hold talks with potential buyers and lenders to sell, mortgage and encumber three offshore properties to raise Rs 10,000-odd crore required to get his freedom.

If he wants to go free, the top court indicated while allowing him this liberty to raise his bail money, he will have to pay up the rest of the Rs 39,000-odd crore in dues to market regulator Sebi. The top court had asked him to pay Rs 24,000 crore to Sebi for repaying investors in two Sahara group companies, including the principal and interest.

But mounting interest has now taken the figure to Rs 39,000 crore. Sebi counsel Arvind Datar on Friday urged the court to address “the larger concern” on the rest of the payment. “Sahara must come out with a definite plan on this,” Datar told the court. “The Saharas estimate their assets at Rs 1,09,000 crore,” he said.

But for the last 24 months, they haven’t liquidated any of their Indian assets, he said, referring to their plea for special facilities inside the jail to enable him to dispose of his foreign assets. “Months are passing, but there's no concrete proposal to pay the balance,” Datar contended.

A top court bench, comprising Justices TS Thakur, who will be CJI at a future point of time, Justice Anil R. Dave and AK Sikri, observed: “The immediate concern is the Rs 10,000 crore as they are inside and are handicapped in coming out. The balance comes later.”

Justice Thakur, however, asked Sahara to explain whether the company had a plan to make the rest of the payments. “These proceedings will not be wound up,” he said.

Sahara lead lawyer Harish N. Salve used this opportunity to clarify that if the Indian properties could have been sold, they would have been sold. “If it (jail) has happened once, it can happen again. The writing on the wall is clear,” he said, to indicate that the Saharas were working on a plan, though it was too early to reveal it.