Police raid Sahara chief's home, does not find him

Armed with Supreme Court's non- bailable warrant, a team of Lucknow police on Thursday raided the house of Sahara chief Subrata Roy to arrest him but failed to find him there.

High drama marked the police action as a team of Gomti Nagar police station reached 'Sahara City' housing his residence at about 4.30 pm to execute the warrant and conducted searches inside the residence.

Entry into and exit from the premises, which is spread in over 270 acres, was barred but the police exercise did not yield fruit.

"The team is there to execute the non-bailable warrant issued by Supreme Court", Circle officer, Gomti Nagar, VS Mishra told PTI.

SHO Gomti Nagar Ajit Singh Chauhan said that Roy was not present inside the Sahara Shahar premises.

"We have searched the premises. Roy was not found there", he told reporters after coming out of the residence.

Another official said they met her mother and doctors but Roy was not there.

The Supreme Court on Wednesday issued a non bailable arrest warrant against Roy for his failure to appear before it in connection with the case in which his two companies have been directed to refund Rs 20,000 crore (Rs 200 billion) to investors.

"We had already declined Roy's plea on Tuesday seeking exemption from personal appearance.

"He has not appeared even today and we are issuing non bailable warrant returnable for March 4," a bench comprising justices K S Radhakrishnan and J S Khehar said.

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Meanwhile Roy on Thursday moved the Supreme Court seeking cancellation of non-bailable arrest warrant issued against him and undertook to appear before it on March 4.

The Sahara chief offered unconditional apology to the apex court for his non-appearance.

Roy also sought recall of the apex court's Wednesday order in which non-bailable warrant was issued against him and police was ordered to arrest and produce him before it on March 4.

A bench of justices K S Radhakrishnan and J S Khehar had rejected Roy's plea to exempt him from personal appearance on the ground of ill-health of his 92-year-old mother.

Senior advocate Ram Jethmalani, who had appeared for Roy, had produced a medical certificate from Sahara Hospital, Lucknow, on the condition of Roy's mother and recommended that he be allowed on ‘humane as well as medical grounds’ to be with his mother at this stage.

. . .

The bench said since on February 25 it had declined to grant exemption, it did not find reason to accede to the renewal of the request made on Wednesday.

The three directors of Sahara Group, who were also summoned along with Roy, had appeared in the court on Wednesday.

The court on February 20 come down heavily on the Sahara group for not refunding Rs 20,000 crore of investors money despite its order and summoned Roy, Ravi Shankar Dubey, Ashok Roy Choudhary and Vandana Bhargava, directors of its firms Sahara India Real Estate Corp Ltd and Sahara India Housing Investment Corp Ltd to be personally present before it on Wednesday.