Auction Sahara’s Aamby Valley, says SC as chief Subrata Roy fails to pay up

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday directed the auction of Sahara's Aamby Valley in Lonavala after the group chief Subrata Roy failed to pay up a deposit to refund investors.

The top court appointed Bombay High Court’s official liquidator for selling the
prime property in Lonavala, Maharashtra. The Supreme Court also ordered Subrata Roy to be personally present before it on April 28.

The court had asked the New York-based Plaza Hotel, which had agreed to buy Sahara's stake for $ 550 million, to deposit Rs 750 crore in SEBI-Sahara refund account, instead of the apex court registry to show its bonafide.

The apex court had warned Sahara last week it would be compelled to auction the group’s properties if it failed to deposit Rs 5,092 crore in the SEBI-Sahara refund account by April 17.

The Supreme Court had attached Aamby Valley properties worth Rs 34,000 crores in early February in the Sahara refund case.

It had also asked the Sahara group to furnish a list of properties that were free from litigation and mortgage so that they could be auctioned to the public.

Sahara had admitted before the top court it still had to pay Rs 14,000 crore as principal money to SEBI and that it had already paid Rs 11,000 crore.

Roy's parole was earlier extended till November 28 after the company deposited Rs 200 crores with SEBI last October, as a condition for his release. The apex court had then granted four weeks' custody parole to Roy to perform his mother's last rites.

The court had, on November 28, 2016, also asked Subrata Roy to deposit a sum of Rs 600 crore more by February 6 in the refund account to stay out of jail.

Roy was in Tihar jail since March 4, 2014, until his mother's death on May 6, 2016, for not complying with the apex court's orders in connection with the long dispute with SEBI.

SEBI had said Roy failed to comply with the top court’s order in 2012 directing him to return investors more than Rs 20,000 crore with 15 percent interest that his two companies Sahara India Real Estate Corp Ltd and the Sahara Housing Finance Corp Ltd had raised through optionally fully convertible debentures (OFCD) in 2007 and 2008.

Two other directors - Ravi Shankar Dubey and Ashok Roy Choudhary - were also arrested for the failure of Sahara India Real Estate Corporation (SIRECL) and Sahara Housing Investment Corp Ltd (SHICL). The arrest was made to comply with the court order of August 31, 2012, to return Rs 24,000 crore to the investors. Director Vandana Bhargava was, however, not taken into custody.