SC grants jailed Subrata Roy 15 more days to sell overseas luxury hotels

The Supreme Court on Monday allowed Sahara Group chief Subrata Roy and two other directors another 15 days to stay in the Tihar Jail court complex’s conference hall to negotiate the sale of assets, including three hotels in London and New York, despite opposition from the central government.

The apex court, however warned that no such extension will be granted in the future.

On Friday, Subrata Roy had told the apex court that his deal with the Sultan of Brinei for the sale of his hotels aborad were on the verge of collapse because of a foreign media report and had sought 15 more days to conclude negotiations.

The Sahara chief was on the verge of clinching the deal but the media report led to massive protests outside the hotels - Grosvenor House in London, and the Plaza and the Dream Downtown in New York, which have now threatened the deal closure, and forced Roy to scout for other buyers.

According to a _Reuters repor_t, Brunei has been criticized by civil rights and gay rights advocacy groups in the United States for becoming the first East Asian country to adopt sharia criminal law, which punishes sodomy and adultery with death by stoning.The City of Beverly Hills voted in May to pressure the sultan’s luxury hotel operator, the Dorchester Collection, to divest the Beverly Hills hotel.

Reports had said earlier thatSultan of Brunei had made a bid for New York’s Plaza and Dream Downtown and London’s Grosvenor House and agreed topay $2 billion for the three hotels.

The assets, located overseas and within the country, are to be sold to raise Rs 10,000 crore as part repayment of investors’ money that Sahara Group’s two companies SIRECL and SHICL had collected through optional fully convertible debentures (OFCDs) in 2008-09.

This is also a condition for their release from judicial custody to which they were sent by the top court March 4.

The apex court Aug 1 had allowed the shifting of Roy and two other directors - Ravi Shankar Dubey and Ashok Roy Choudhary - to a make-shift jail in conference hall at the jail court complex to facilitate them to negotiate sale of his properties, in India and abroad.

The initial shifting of Roy and two other directors for 10 working days came to end Aug 19 but before that, on Aug 14, it was further extended by another 15 working days and was to now conclude Sep 9. Now the SC has granted 15 more days and has directed Sahara to submit documents with reference to protests held in London and New York.

Earlier, a bench of Justice T.S.Thakur, Justice Anil R. Dave and Justice A.K.Sikri in the Aug 14 hearing of the extension plea had said: “You must ensure that you comply with it within the extended period and you will not come from more extension.” The court had said this as Solicitor General Ranjit Kumar told the court that Tihar Jail authorities would not agree for any further extension.

Following the 2012 order to return investors’ money, the court had March 26 asked Sahara to deposit Rs.10,000 crore - Rs.5,000 in cash and Rs.5,000 in bank guarantee - as part payment of the money, which in 2012 was Rs. 24,000 crore.

However, market regulator, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), now says that this amount has shot up more than Rs.37,000 crore with Income Tax department making a tax claim of Rs.4,800 crore.

With inputs from IANS