In a reprieve to the Sahara Group, the Supreme Court on Friday allowed shifting its chief Subrata Roy from a prison cell to a conference hall in Delhi’s Tihar jail complex to facilitate business negotiations. The court allowed Roy and the two other jailed direcors to use for 10 working days the conference room in Tihar, from August 5, to hold negotiations with potential buyers to sell three luxury hotels in New York and London to raise Rs 10,000 crore to get regular bail. A bench led by Justice TS Thakur said this arrangement will be allowed between 6 am and 8 pm everyday and Roy will be assisted by three secretarial staff with necessary equipments and video-conferencing facilities. The bench, also comprising justices AR Dave and AK Sikri, passed the directions after recording the agreement reached between Sahara, Tihar jail authorities and Sebi. The court had on July 25 asked the Delhi government to explore a venue within Tihar jail complex where Roy could hold negotiations with buyers. Underlining that it was removing the handicap, the bench remarked that Sahara could no longer make excuses for their inability to raise this amount, and that they should now start thinking about the balance money they require to deposit with the Sebi in accordance with the court orders. The court had in August 2012 directed the group to pay Rs 24,000 crore to the Sebi for refunding investors’ money. Sebi now claims this amount has swollen to Rs 38,000 crore with interest. Sahara however has contended it has already redeemed more than 90 per cent of the investors. Roy and the two directors, who have been in jail since March 4, had urged for relaxation in certain terms since they were not in a position in jail to have meaningful negotiations since people knew these were distress sales. The bench responded, “Everyone knows about your distress. It has now become a battle of nerves. They want you to lose your nerves but you have been holding on.” In a statement, Sahara welcomed the order, saying it would lead to reintroduction of Roy to in the work sphere that will immensely help in complying with the court orders.
