The Supreme Court yesterday asked Sahara chief Subrata Roy to deposit Rs15bn, as offered by him, by June 15, failing which he will have to go back to jail even as it sent a proposed buyer of Sahara’s assets to jail for contempt.
Asking Roy, who was present in the court, to pay the money, the bench of justice Dipak Misra, justice Ranjan Gogoi and justice A K Sikri recorded his assurance that cheque of Rs15bn would be honoured on being presented on the due date.
“We are warning you if the cheques are not realised, amount does not come, we will be compelled to send you to Tihar Jail straight away from here,” the bench told Roy asking him to be present on the next date of hearing on June 19.
Seeking some more time to pay the money, Roy told the court that he would pay Rs15bn by June 15, another Rs5.52bn by July 15 and Rs30bn by October 30.
The court was given two cheques of Rs15bn and Rs5.52bn towards the payment assured in the month of June and July.
Sahara has still to pay the balance Rs111.69bn of the principal amount of Rs257.81bn to investors from whom two group companies – SIRECL and SHICL – had raised cash in 2008 and 2009 through OFCDs .
Asking Roy to be present in court on June 19 when it would hold further hearing in the matter, the bench asked the official liquidator of the Bombay High Court, Vinod Sharma, to proceed with the preparation of the terms and conditions for the auction of Sahara’s Aamby valley property.
The court said the reserve price for Aamby Valley auction would be Rs373.92bn.
The terms and conditions would be placed before the court on June 19 for it consideration and approval.
The official liquidator of Bombay High Court, in a report on the worth of the Aamby Valley by an evaluator, said the market value of Aamby Valley is Rs373.90bn and the fair value is Rs430bn.
Senior counsel Kapil Sibal, appearing for Roy, too quoted a price that was little more than the one quoted by the evaluator but said that the enterprise value of the property was Rs1tn.
Meanwhile, the court sent Prakash Swamy – the power of attorney holder for US-based company MG Capital Holdings LLC, New York, that had shown interest in buying Sahara’s New York-located Hotel Plaza – to jail for one month for not depositing the Rs100mn fine ordered by the court for backing out and misleading the court.
The court had on April 17 ordered Swamy to deposit the fine with its registry by April 27.
The bench sent Swamy to Tihar jail after the court was informed that he has not deposited the money.
Seeking mercy, Swamy said that he was an old journalist who had reported on the United Nations for 10 years. He said that he filed the affidavit as people in the company concerned knew him and promised him some good gains from the deal. He described himself as “small man”.
Telling Swamy that “a small man should not try to be big”, the bench said: “You should not have gone into this. You must understand the gravity of the case.”
“If we forgive you it will send a wrong message,” justice Misra said pointing out that sometimes “tempting situation lead to confinement”.
Swamy had earlier told the court that US-based MG Holding was buying Sahara’s Plaza Hotel, following which the court has asked them to deposit Rs7.5bn in a Sahara-Sebi Refund account to prove their bona fides.
However, in the next hearing, the court was informed that the US company had withdrawn the offer after doing due diligence of the property.


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