SC grants 15 days more to Sahara's Roy to sell hotels

The Supreme Court on Monday granted 15 more working days time to jailed Sahara Chief Subrata Roy to seal the deal to sell his three luxury hotels in New York and London to raise money to be deposited with SEBI to get bail.

Appearing before a bench headed by Justice T S Thakur, Roy's counsel submitted that its almost finalised deal to sell the properties to foreign buyers has hit a roadblock and is on the verge of collapse and sought more time to save the deal and to hold negotiations with 3-4 other overseas buyers who are interested in hotels.

The bench, after going through the documents including the in principle master agreement with the potential buyer, observed that attempts have been made to finalise the deal and granted more time to hold consultations.

"We are of the view that the prayer for grant of 15-days time to finalise the sale of assets deserves to be granted," the bench said in its order.

Senior advocate S Ganesh, appearing for Roy, submitted that it may not feasible for the group to dispose of its Indian properties as the real estate prices have crashed down since June this year.

Moreover, the court's direction that they cannot be sold below market rate also comes in the way of their sale, he said.

He submitted that there have been huge protests outside the hotels after an International newspaper published a story that Sultan of Brunei is buying them. A very serious problem has cropped up in the last few days after a newspaper report said Sultan of Brunei is buying the properties.

It is a monumental setback and subsequent inalienable situation has hit us hard and the buyer developed cold feet, he said.

He said there have been very violent protests outside the hotels and the buyers are "reconsidering the deal which is now on the verge of being scrapped.

During the hearing, Solicitor General Ranjit Kumar told the bench that though he was not imputing any motive of any wrong doing, the so-called deals are being conducted in a closed room to which no information is known.

Ganesh said that his client is making all the efforts to see the deal through as no one is more anxious than him to get out of jail.

The apex court had on August 1 allowed Roy and two directors of his group to use the conference room in Tihar jail complex for 10 days from August 5 to hold negotiations with potential buyers.

The time period was further extended for 15 days on August 14.

The Sahara chief put his hotels Dream Downtown and The Plaza in New York and Grosvenor House in London on block to sell.

Roy, 65, who has been in jail for the past six months, had pleaded that he was committed to follow apex court's direction and sought its permission for shifting to Tihar jail guest house for a week to enable him to hold negotiations to sell his properties in India and abroad to raise Rs 10,000 crore (Rs 100 billion) to get regular bail.

The apex court had refused to release Roy on interim bail or parole but had allowed selling of his luxury hotels.

It had also appointed senior advocate Shekhar Naphade as amicus curiae to assist the court in dealing with the case in which the group is supposed to pay around Rs 37,000 crore (Rs 370 billion) to wind up the proceedings in the apex court.

Roy, who was sent to jail on March 4 this year for non- refund of over Rs 20,000 crore (Rs 200 billion) to depositors, was asked by the court to pay Rs 10,000 crore (Rs 100 billion) to get bail, out of which Rs 5,000 crore (Rs 500 billion) in cash and rest of the amount in bank guarantee. Sahara has raised Rs 3,117 crore (Rs 31.17 billion) which has been deposited with SEBI.

The group, however, has been claiming that it has already repaid money to 93 per cent investors.