Subrata Roy: Supreme Court directs Sahara chief Subrata Roy to appear before it on February 28

The Supreme Court on Thursday asked Sahara Group chief Subrata Roy to appear before it on February 28, and explain his failure to pay the arrears over two deposit schemes that had been declared illegal by market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India.Sahara was ordered on August 31, 2012, to pay Rs 25,7180000000 to Sebi, to be distributed by the market regulator to investors in the two schemes. With the interest component, the total amount to be paid, as per Sebi estimates, has increased. Sahara, which has repeatedly claimed that it had repaid most of the depositors directly, has so far paid Rs 15,0000000000 of the principal amount to the regulator.The amount paid by the company and lying with the regulator has earned Rs 5,0000000000 as interest. Including this, Sahara’s total payment stands at around Rs 20,0000000000. It has to pay another Rs 5,7000000000 to clear the principal.The group has been unable to pay this amount for a while. Frustrated by this, the court had earlier directed that its flagship Aamby Valley project near Pune be auctioned to recover the money, but nothing much has come out of it as there were no buyers. This forced the court to call off its attempts to auction the project and recover the money at one go.The court had sent Roy to jail on March 4, 2014, over his failure to pay. He was granted parole in May 2016, when his mother died, and he has since remained outside jail as the court extended his parole multiple times. It had linked Roy’s freedom to stay out of jail with periodic payments.