Supreme Court stays Patna HC warrant against Sahara chief Subrata Roy
The High Court had issued an arrest warrant against Sahara India Chief Subrata Roy for not being present at the court despite clear instructions for the same.
FollowThe Supreme Court has stayed the Patna High Court order directing the arrest of Sahara India chief Subrata Roy and also stayed further proceedings against him. The High Court had earlier in the day issued an arrest warrant against Roy for not being present at the court despite clear instructions for the same.
Roy had been directed by the single bench of Justice Sandeep Kumar on May 12 to be physically present in the court failing which the arrest warrant was issued. The court is hearing over 2000 cases related to alleged fraud by Sahara India. The company is accused of not returning the money taken from thousands of investors.
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Roy's counsel had on Thursday claimed that the Sahara India chief was unwell and had submitted medical documents regarding the same. However, the court did not seem convinced. Roy had appealed to the court citing illness and his age (74) to allow him to appear in the court in a virtual way. The court, however, reportedly told Roy's lawyer that he was not older than the court.
In earlier hearings, the High Court had told the Sahara Group to explain how it intends to return the hard-earned money of the people of Bihar, which the firm invested in different schemes.
Roy's counsel had then filed an interim application in the court that stated that there was a detailed plan ready to return the money owed to investors and that immediately, they were ready to allocate Rs 5 crore towards it.
The accusation against Sahara
According to reports, Sahara India Real Estate Corporation (SIRECL) and Sahara Housing Investment Corporation (SHICL) raised an amount of about Rs 24,000 crore from 2.5 crore investors through Optionally Fully Convertible Debentures. It happened in April 2008 when SIRECL and SHICL started issuing OFCDs. In September 2009, Sahara Prime City submitted documents to market regulator SEBI for an IPO.
SEBI received two complaints on December 25, 2009, and January 4, 2010, claiming that the two firms were allegedly issuing alternative fully convertible debentures and raising funds through wrong means. A SEBI investigation found that SIRECL and SHICL raised about Rs 24,000 crore through OFCDs from around 2.5 crore investors.
After the irregularities were exposed, SEBI ordered the two companies to stop raising money and return the money to the investors with 15 per cent interest. However, things came to a logjam immediately as accusations of money laundering surfaced. In due course, bank accounts and assets of Sahara India were frozen.
Roy was arrested on January 26, 2014, following a Supreme Court order. The Enforcement Directorate charged the Sahara Group with money laundering in November 2017. After a long legal process, Subrata Roy got bail. The trial, meanwhile, continues in courts across the country.
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