Who is Subrata Roy? 10 things you need to know about the 'mystery man'

Sahara boss Subrata Roy today apologised to the Supreme Court for not appearing in the court last week. Roy told the apex court the reasons for his non-appearance were genuine.

‘I apologise for my earlier absence, reasons were genuine," said Roy. The Supreme Court accepted the apology but also rapped Roy for not respecting the court order. “We respected you; you failed to respect us,” said thetwo judge bench of justice Radhakrishnan and justice Khehar.

[caption id=“attachment_65120” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Sahara chief Subrata Roy. PTI[/caption]

Roy was arrested on Friday after failing to appear at a Supreme Court hearing - which he says he missed to attend to his ailing mother - related to a multi-billion-dollar Sahara investment scheme that was later ruled to be illegal.

More from Corporate

Maha: Court orders Rs 30L compensation for parents after youth dies in road accident Ashleigh Barty comes from set down to beat Coco Gauff in Australian Open lead-up

So, who is Subrata Roy?

Roy is the self-styled managing worker of Sahara India Pariwar– India’s biggest private-sector employer.Roy and unlisted Sahara have long been subjects of mystery. Roy is prone to public shows of patriotism and full-page newspaper ads defending Sahara against the authorities, and is often photographed with Bollywood stars and cricketers. Roystarted with capital ofRs 2,000 in the late 1970s and eventually built his company into a giant that, according to its website, has assets currently of more than $11 billion orRs 68,000 crore.

Sahara itself is best known as the former main sponsor of the national cricket team. It has a net worth of $11 billion and more than 36,000 acres of real estate, according to its website.Sahara has accumulated a string of trophies in recent years, including a stake in a Formula One motor racing team and ownership of Grosvenor House hotel in London. In July, it agreed to buy a controlling stake in New York’s Plaza Hotel.

Last year, Roy teamed up with liquor baron Vijay Mallya of Kingfisher beer fame, paying $100 million for 42.5 percent of his Force India Formula One auto racing team. It paid $370 million for a franchise in cricket’s Indian Premier League.In 2010, Sahara considered buying English Premier League soccer club Liverpool and held talks to buy the debt of film studio Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Neither deal happened.

The company’s full name is Sahara India Pariwar, or family. Roy, 64, refers to himself as the guardian of the world’s largest family, and espouses a philosophy of “collective materialism”.At its headquarters in Lucknow, staff greet visitors by putting their right hand to their chest and saying “Sahara Pranam”.Roy, often photographed wearing a black necktie and vest over a white shirt, is based nearby at the showpiece Sahara Shaher, a sprawling gated complex of low white buildings and lawns where he lives and where the group holds an annual mass wedding for 101 couples who could otherwise not afford it.

Roy is often described as a billionaire but he is not on the Forbes list of rich Indians. Sahara’s website says no dividend has been paid for 34 years and no profit has been taken out of the company.Roy is not typically bracketed with a corporate elite led by Indian families such as the Tatas, Birlas and Ambanis.“If you look at the orthodox business community, they have kept him at arm’s length,” said Ashok Prasad, a physician, lawyer and academic who taught overseas before returning to Gorakhpur, the city where Roy started out.

Critics, including activist groups, say Sahara’s investment products are designed to evade oversight by financial regulators and that it lacks transparency on the source and use of its funds, selling products to investors who do not understand the risks and ploughing the proceeds into real estate projects.

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) says Sahara failed to comply with a 2012 court order to repay billions of dollars to investors. Sahara says it repaid most investors and that its remaining liability was less than the 51.2 billion rupees it deposited with SEBI.The question is money. Where is the money and when will it be paid," said Dushyant Dave, a Supreme Court lawyer who has represented Sahara in the past.

Sahara says its land holdings in India are more than 33,600 acres (13,600 hectares). Although not all is majority-owned, it amounts to more than any listed Indian developer.The group has two small listed units, Sahara One Media and Entertainment Ltdand Sahara Housingfina Corp Ltd, whose combined market capitalisation is $48 million.

Sahara customers interviewedby Reuters in Uttar Pradesh said they trusted the company, which has been around more than 30 years. Some had reinvested in Sahara products when they matured.Sahara operates through nearly a million agents, who sign up clients and collect payments, sometimes on a daily basis.“I have never been to a Sahara office. The agent comes, does all the paperwork, and collects the money,” said Anil Tripathi, a travel agent who said he had doubled his money with Sahara.

With inputs from Reuters