Supreme Court grants Subrata Roy time till July 4 to pay Rs 700 crore

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday granted Sahara chairman Subrata Roy time till July 4 to pay the remaining Rs 700 crore, out of the Rs 1,500 crore that he had agreed to pay by June 15. On April 27, Mr Roy had given two post-dated cheques to SEBI for Rs 1,500 crore to be encashed by June 15 and Rs 552 crore to be encashed on July 15.

Having paid only Rs 790.18 crores out of Rs 1,500 crore, Mr Roy had sought 10 days time to pay the remaining Rs 709.82 crore. A bench of Justices Dipak Misra and Ranjan Gogoi accepted the plea, but warned him that he could be sent to jail on the next date of hearing on July 5 if he is unable to deposit the amount.

Senior counsel Kapil Sibal, appearing for Mr Roy, informed the court that Sahara was able to sell its hotel in London, and an amount of Rs 690 crore was awaited from the buyer who wants 10 days time to deposit the amount to the Sahara-SEBI Refund account. He also informed the court that a buyer had agreed to but 87.04 acres of land in Haridwar for Rs 109 crore, which is 38 per cent less than the guideline value and approval from court was needed.

The Bench said it can’t allow a property to be sold less than the guideline value and asked SEBI to e-auction the property and said the sale price should not be less than 90 per cent of the guideline value or circle rate.   

With Sahara failing to deposit Rs. 5,100 crores, the Supreme Court on April 17 had appointed official liquidator of the Bombay High Court  to auction the Amby Valley project near Pune in Maharashtra to realise the dues from Sahara chief Subrata Roy, who is now on parole. During the resumed hearing the official liquidator submitted a report indicating the value of the properties at Rs. 37,392 crores and how he is going to sell them. A schedule of terms and conditions was placed on record for court approval.  The Bench had earlier asked the official liquidator to fixe the reserved price for the purpose of auction at Rs.37,392 Crores. The becnh posted the matter for further hearing on July 5.