The Supreme Court on yesterday asked the Sahara Group to deposit another Rs2bn by October 24, as it extended the parole of company chief Subrata Roy and two directors.
A bench of Chief Justice T S Thakur, Justice Anil R Dave and Justice A K Sikri also said if the company fails to pay the money, all three would go back to jail.
The order assumes significance as on the last hearing on September 23, the bench, taking exception to certain remarks of senior counsel Rajeev Dhavan, terminated the interim arrangement of granting parole to Roy and had given him time till tomorrow to surrender.
The court had on August 3 asked Sahara to deposit Rs3bn as it extended his parole till September 16. This was later extended by one week. Roy and his son-in-law Ashok Roy Choudhary were granted parole on May 6 this year to attend the last rites of his mother.
While extending the parole, the court asked Sahara to give a roadmap by which it wants to return 30.3mn investors’ money it raised in 2008-09.
The court asked senior counsel Kapil Sibal appearing for Roy to sit with Sebi lawyer Arvind Dattar and amicus curiae Shekhar Naphade and give it an agreed roadmap for the return of the deposits.
The court also sought Sahara’s explanation on Sebi’s application that most of the properties given by the company for auctioning were attached by the Income Tax Authorities and there was no point in going ahead with the second round of auction.
While urging the court to put on hold the auction of Sahara properties and hold hearing on its plea for the appointment of receiver, the Sebi had told the court last week that of the 67 properties that were to be put to auction in the first phase, 63 stood provisionally attached on account of assessed dues of Sahara City Homes.