Sahara case: Roy pleads for parole to raise bail as IT Dept claims Rs 7,000 cr in taxes

A bench headed by Justice T S Thakur, however, raised apprehension on Sahara selling international properties and asked the company to first dispose of its assets which are in the country.
Sahara Chief Subrata Roy, who has been in jail for the last four months, pleaded before the Supreme Court to allow him parole for at least 40 days to sell his properties to raise Rs 10,0000000000 to get bail and expressed his willingness to dispose of luxury hotels in New York and London. A bench headed by Justice T S Thakur, however, raised apprehension on Sahara selling international properties and asked the company to first dispose of its assets which are in the country. Advocate Rajiv Dhawan, appearing for Roy, however, submitted that Rs 5,0000000000 might not be raised by selling assets situated in the country and pleaded the court to allow him to sell off hotels Dream Downtown and The Plaza in New York and Grosvenor House in London for which negotiations are going on. "We have no problem in allowing you to sell properties provided that transaction is fair, genuine and there is no undervalue of the property. But we do not know how the valuation of property in the other country is done," the bench, also comprising justices A R Dave and A K Sikri, said. The bench asked SEBI to come out with suggestions on how to monitor selling of overseas property and posted the case for hearing today. "We are naive in these matters. We do not know how the international market work. You(SEBI) must ensure that there is no mischief in sale and there is no underhand payment in the deal," it said, adding, "Why don't you look into these issues to ensure that all possibility of leakages are plugged." "We need to monitor the sale. We do not know how to do it so you must come out with suggestions on how to do it and what are the safeguards required," the bench said. In the meantime, IT department also filed an application saying that Sahara also owes Rs 7,0000000000 as tax and wanted to be heard in the ongoing proceedings. The company also told the apex court that it has so far raised Rs 3,1170000000 which has been deposited with the market regulator. Dhawan, however, rejected the claim made by the department saying that the company would challenge the issue in the appellate tribunal. 65-year-old Roy, who was sent to jail on March 4 this year for non-refund of over Rs 20,0000000000 to depositors, was asked by the court to pay Rs 10,0000000000 to get bail, out of which Rs 5,0000000000 in cash and rest of the amount in bank guarantee. The Sahara group, however, had been claiming that it has already repaid money to 93% investors. PTI