Sahara chief Subrata Roy's lawyer on Thursday told the Supreme Court that Sahara would be unable to deposit the Rs 10,000 crore - Rs 5,000 crore in cash and Rs 5,000 crore in bank guarantees - as surety for bail.
Therefore, the Sahara chief will have to remain in jail until the next hearing on April 3.
The apex court on Wednesday had said Sahara group chief Subrata Roy could walk out of Tihar jail on bail as soon as he paid Rs 10,000 crore, half in cash to be deposited in court and the rest in bank guarantee with market regulator Sebi, in part payment of the Rs 20,000 crore due to investors.
A bench of Justices K S Radhakrishnan and J S Khehar rejected Sahara group's latest repayment proposal, which offered upfront payment of Rs 2,500 crore and the rest in installments till March 31 next year, but said, "We are inclined to grant interim bail to contemnors who are detained by virtue of our March 4 order."
The decision to grant pre-conditioned interim bail brought no cheer to Sahara. Senior advocate C A Sundaram immediately requested the bench to consider bringing down the cash component of upfront payment to Rs 2,500 crore, but the bench refused to relent.
Immediately after assembling in the court room, the judges pronounced the order rejecting Sahara's fresh proposal. The bench said Roy and the two other directors would be released on interim bail if they "would pay the amount of Rs 10,000 crore - out of which Rs 5,000 crore to be deposited before this court and for the balance a bank guarantee of a nationalised bank be furnished in favour of Sebi and be deposited before this court".
"On compliance, the contemnors be released forthwith and the amount deposited be released to Sebi," the bench said and clarified that interim bail was being granted to the contemnors to facilitate them to arrange the balance amount.
Sahara has made several offers so far, revising the amount payable as well as other transactional details. On March 4, Sahara had promised to furnish a bank guarantee for Rs 22,500 crore and in return sought title deeds of all assets it had placed with Sebi as security. It had proposed to start selling the assets from March 5 to raise the money.
This was however, rejected by the Supreme Court, leading to the latest repayment proposal from Sahara, which was also rejected today.
Sahara has put out a press release explaining its inability to furnish the amount ordered by the Supreme Court for Roy's release. The press release mentions that sale of assets of Sahara are embargoed and the bank accounts frozen, and therefore the payment of such a sum via a bank guarantee becomes extremely difficult. Also, the press release says that even if sale of assets was allowed, it would be a distress sale not fetching more than 20-25% of the real asset values.
Towards the end, the press release dramatically declares that 'Under these circumstances any human being can understand the impossibility of fulfilling even 10% of the Hon'ble Court's conditions and requirements.'
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