Sahara gets time till April 13 to sell its properties

Satya Prakash

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Tribune News Service

New Delhi, February 28 

The Supreme Court on Tuesday gave time until April 13 to Sahara to sell their properties and deposit Rs 5,092.64 crore towards refund of investors’ money.

A three-judge Bench headed by Justice Dipal Misra also issued notice to Ghaziabad Development Authority (GDA) that has acquired 91.65 acres of Sahara land. GDA is to compute and pay compensation to the tune of Rs 1112.70 crore.

The Bench had on February 8 ordered to attach Sahara group’s prime property Aamby Valley estimated to be worth Rs 39,000 crore for the company’s failure to pay over Rs 14,000 crore of the principal amount it owed to its investors.

It had also ordered Sahara to submit by February 20 a list of its properties free from encumbrances for auction to realise over Rs 14,000 crore, the remaining amount the company is supposed to pay to the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) towards the money owed to duped investors.

But on Tuesday, the court granted Sahara more time and extended the parole of Subrata Roy after senior counsel Kapil Sibal pleaded for more time to dispose of the company’s properties and deposit the remaining amount.

The list includes, Sahara Hospital, Lucknow; Sahara India Sadan Shakespear Sarani, Kolkatta; land at Sohna Road, Gurgaon; land at Najafgarh in Delhi; Sahara City Homes at Indore; Sahara City Homes at Lucknow; Sahara City Homes at Coimbatore; Sahara States, Bhopal; Sahara City Homes at Guna; Sahara City Homes, Land at Katni, M.P; Sahara City Homes, Land at Haridwar; Sahara City Homes, land at Pune; land & building at Whiltefield, Bangalore; Stake in Orange India Holdings Sarl, Silverstone, London and land at Ghaziabad.

Sahara has already deposited more than Rs 11,000 crore with SEBI and Rs 14,779 crore of the principal amount remains to be paid. Sahara had proposed to pay it by July 2019. On Tuesday, Sibal was pleading for three-month time but the court granted time only till April 13. It posted the matter for further hearing on April 17.

The Supreme Court had sent Sahara chief Subrata Roy to Tihar Jail in March 2014 after he failed to appear in response to its summons over non-payment of investors’ money. Roy has been on parole since May last year.

The court also directed an international real estate company MG Capital Holdings LLC — which evinced interest in buying Sahara’s stake in Plaza Hotel in New York for 550 million USD — to deposit Rs 750 crore by the next date of hearing to show its bona fides.

On the last date of hearing, the company handed over bank drafts for over Rs 600 crore to SEBI in the court.

As directed by the court, Sibal handed over a list of properties that could be disposed of to realize money towards refund to investors. But SEBI counsel said it was difficult to auction them as previous attempts could not get desired results.

Sibal said the court should keep these properties as security and allow Sahara to arrange money in six months. But the court gave time till April 17 and said if the company deposited the money, it could extend the time again.

Reserve Bank of India counsel Ramesh Babu told the court that RBI has filed a winding up petition against Sahara India Financial Corporation Limited and, therefore, any property belonging to the said company should not be allowed.