Sahara Group chief Subrata Roy seems to be "very comfortable" in jail and not making any effort to sell his offshore properties to meet out to bail condition of Rs 10,000 crore, the Supreme Court on Friday said after Roy came with a fresh plea for permission to raise money on those assets to comply with the court's order.
"He appears to be happy there (jail). No effort is being made to come out. It seems he is very comfortable there. These all are calculations," the bench headed by Justice T S Thakur said when Roy's counsel G Ganesh sought court's permission to modify the terms and conditions for "junior loan."
The Bank of China had lent money to Sahara for purchasing stakes in overseas hotels. The group has entered into an agreement with another firm for additional loan (junior loan) of $650 million (approximately Rs 3,600 crore) to raise money to meet the bail condition.
The bench also directed Sahara to deposit Rs 186 crore, which the group has received as advance money from the buyers for sale of three properties in India, with it.
The apex court had earlier allowed Roy, 65, to use the conference room in Tihar jail complex to hold negotiations with potential buyers for selling the hotels – Dream Downtown and The Plaza in New York and – Grosvenor House in London.
In the beginning of arguments, the bench wanted to know the achievements of the group on the aspect to sell the foreign assets.
The counsel said Sahara has made some achievements in its bid to sell its three overseas hotels for which there is a need to amend the "terms and conditions" relating to second loan and other transactions.
Roy has been in jail since March 4 for defying the apex court's order to refund money to the investors, who spent money towards Sahara's proposed housing project, repeatedly. On March 26, the court granted him bail with a condition that he will be released only after he deposits Rs 10,000 crore with market regulator SEBI.
Sahara has so far raised Rs 3,117 crore and deposited with SEBI and its counsel said out of nine domestic assets it has now sold an Ahmedabad property of Rs 411.82 crore which has also gone into account of the market regulator.
The bench also made queries on the recent Income Tax raids at the premises of Sahara office here and wondered, "how Rs 146 crore was recovered? Why have you stashed away the money?"
The counsel said that the amount was for payment of salaries to the employees for three months and was accounted for, the bench said, "why the amount will come to Delhi and then go to other parts of the country for distribution."
Making submissions, the lawyer said that a tripartite agreement is on the anvil which will lead to grant of a loan by a "junior" lender at a much higher interest rate and if the deal fructifies, then $650 million would be generated.
He said the money will go to an escrow account and sought involvement of asset management agencies to ascertain the value of the amount, likely to be fetched, from the sale of the domestic properties.
"Ask the junior lender to deposit significant sum in the escrow account to show that we get confidence that the amount is coming," the bench said taking note of the plea that the amount would be utilised for the payment in SEBI-Sahara Refund Account to comply with court's directions.
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