New Delhi: Sahara chief Subroto Roy will stay in Tihar Jail for now, with the Supreme Court on Tuesday rejecting all his pleas against his illegal detention. The apex court said it adopted tough method to detain him only after all its efforts to “cajole” the Group to pay the money failed.
He had alleged that the top court had violated his fundamental rights by sending him to judicial custody on March 4, 2014, despite the fact that he was not a debtor in the case involving two of his companies and had not been heard.
A bench, comprising justices K S Radhakrishnan and J S Khehar rejected all his pleas on Tuesday against his detention, but permitted him to submit a fresh monetary proposal to the court to pave way for his release.
The court clarified that the bench had remanded him to jail for failing to abide by its August 31, 2014, order to pay back Rs 24,000 crore along with interest. he apex court also said the arguments are devoid of any merits and it “immaculately” followed procedure before ordering his arrest.
It was not possible for us to accept that the procedure under law was not followed while passing the (arrest) order, the bench said. It said judicial orders cannot be allowed to be “circumvented” and disobedience of its orders strike at the very root of rule of law.
Sahara has so far paid only Rs 5206 crore. It has to pay another Rs 37,000 cr to SEBI to return to investors in two Sahara companies. The bench also rejected Sahara’s claims that it had paid back the entire sum by way of cash to investors as a doubtful and specious claim. It has indicated that it would have to pay at least Rs 10,000 crore to prove its bona fides for Roy’s release.
Bureau Report
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