You are in jail by choice: Supreme Court bench to Sahara chief Subrata Roy

The observations were made when senior advocate Kapil Sibal sought an interim reprieve, complaining it was not fair to put Roy inside the jail when the contempt proceedings against him over not complying with the orders to repay investors had not been decided.

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Sibal said it was difficult for Roy to arrange a big amount for his release by staying inside the jail and the court should consider humanitarian grounds for his release. However, the bench retorted: “Please appreciate we have certain constraints. Read the previous orders passed by this court. You will know why your client is in jail.” Roy and two other directors have been in jail since March 2014.

The Group also opposed a plea by Sebi to appoint a receiver to sell its properties for arranging fund to redeem investors. The bench, however, gave Sebi a liberty to move a formal application and said it will be considered in accordance with the law. A court-appointed receiver takes custody of the assets and disposes it so as to realise money owed by the owner of the properties. It will hear the case next on September 14.

Meanwhile, the Group’s 46-acre land in Uttar Pradesh’s Gorakhpur finally fetched Rs 152 crore — Rs 2 crore more than what was offered by the Gorakhpur Real Estate Developers during the court-room auction on July 13.

The auction was necessitated after two groups sought to purchase this piece of land. The bench had earlier allowed Sahara to enter into a definitive agreement with Samriddhi Developers for development of 45.71 acre out of the total land area of 146 acres in Gorakhpur. Samriddhi offered Rs 64 crore but Gorakhpur Real Estate Developers Pvt Ltd approached the court with an offer of Rs 110 crore for the same piece of land.

As bail money, the Group has to arrange Rs 10,000 crore, partly in cash and rest in the form of bank guarantee, to enable Roy and two other directors walk out of Delhi’s Tihar jail after 16 months.