SEBI accuses Sahara of obstructing Aamby Valley auction, files contempt plea

Satya Prakash

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Tribune News Service

New Delhi, October 10

Market regulator SEBI on Tuesday filed a contempt petition against the Sahara Group accusing it of obstructing the implementation of the court’s order for auction of the company’s flagship property Aamby Valley near Pune.

SEBI’s plea was mentioned by its counsel Pratap Venugopal for urgent hearing before a bench headed by Justice Ranjan Gogoi.

Venugopal said the auction process was to start from today but Sahara had been creating obstructions by suspending day-to-day business activities in the Aamby Valley which was likely to create law and order problem.

Justice Gogoi said the contempt petition would be listed for hearing before the Special Bench hearing the matter in consultation with Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra, who headed the bench. Justice AK Sikri is the third judge on the Special Bench.

The SEBI’s petition drew the court’s attention to a letter written by a representative of Aamby Valley Private Limited on September 28 to the police, the official liquidator of Bombay high Court and Maharashtra’s additional chief secretary of home that the company had stopped its operation due to lack of funds.

Accusing Sahara of attempting “to subvert, hinder, thwart and derail the due process of law,” SEBI said: “It is obvious that no prospective purchaser would make a bid when there is a lock out and the Police have taken control of the property.”

In its petition, SEBI accused Sahara of adopting “subterfuge methods to avoid auction of the property” and declaring a “lockout” of the commercial premises six days ahead of the proposed auction.

Angry over non-payment of money, the top court had on April 17 decided to sell Aamby Valley worth more Rs 34,000 crore belonging to the Sahara group to recover money owed by the company to investors. Thereafter, it turned down repeated Sahara’s repeated pleas to halt the auction process being overseen by the official liquidator of the Bombay High Court.

The reserve price was fixed at Rs 37,392 crore for Aamby Valley near Lonavala in Pune district of Maharashtra. The sale by actual auction was to be held on October 10 and 11, 2017.

Sahara chief Subrata Roy was sent to Tihar jail on March 4, 2014. But the top court granted him a four-week parole on May 6, 2016 to attend his mother’s funeral. His parole has been periodically extended since then.