Sahara tells Supreme Court: 3,117-Crore Deposited with SEBI

According to an affidavit filed by the Sahara counsel, Keshav Mohan in the Supreme Court, the Sahara Group has already deposited Rs. 3,117-crore with SEBI, ensuring the Court about its efforts to raise the remaining sum, to furnish the Rs. 5,000-crore bail bond for the release of its chief, Subrata Roy. The group also presented bank communication relating to transfer of the monies to the SEBI-Sahara account as an evidence of actual payments being made by Sahara.

This development comes close to the heels of the recent SC order which had lifted an embargo on the sale of nine Sahara properties, bringing huge financial relief to the company and subsequently creating favorable circumstances for Subrata Roy’s release.

Last month, the new bench comprising of Justice T.S. Thakur and Justice A.K. Sikri modified the March 4^thorder restricting sale of property, to raise the amount for his interim bail. While still continuing with Subrata Roy’s custody, the court had on June 4 referred the case to a three-judge bench and appointed senior advocate Fali S. Nariman as the amicus curiae.  However, Nariman had turned down the proposal.

Pursuant to this order, Sahara group had sold approximately 4.21-lakh square metres of land belonging to its residential scheme ‘Sahara City’ in Ahmedabad to city-based developers for a sum of Rs 464-crore.

Sahara was trying to free its Chief Subrata Roy and three Directors from a very long time. In March 2014, an order was passed by the apex court for their granting interim bail, on the condition that they deposit Rs.10, 000-crores. Out of this a sum of Rs.5,000-crores had to be deposited in cash before this Court while the balance amount of Rs.5000-crores had to be secured by a bank guarantee of a nationalized bank, furnished in favor of the SEBI. Read the Live Law story here.

The issue of his release will be decided on Thursday.