Supreme Court lets Subrata Roy sell stake luxury hotel in London

In a significant move, the Supreme Court on Monday allowed the Sahara group to sell its interests in London's Grosvenor House Hotel to GH Equity UK to collect funds for securing regular bail for its chief Subrata Roy in the case involving illegal collection of money from investors.

After senior lawyer Kapil Sibal appearing for Roy and the group submitted that the sale has been completed and sought permission of the court to transfer funds from the deal to the Sebi-Sahara refund account, a bench of Justices Dipak Misra and Ranjan Gogoi allowed the same.

The bench meanwhile extended till July 4 the time for embattled Roy to deposit Rs 709.82 crore, out of Rs 1,500 crore which was to be paid by June 15, with a warning that failure to pay the remainder may again land him in jail.

Extending its interim order granting bail to Roy till July 5, the bench said, "If the balance amount is not paid by that date, we will be compelled to send the contemnor (Roy) to custody and we are sure he shall not give rise to such an occasion".

At the outset, Sibal said that out of Rs 1,500 crore, which was to be paid by June 15, the Sahara chief has deposited Rs 790.18 crore and ten more working days be granted to him to comply with the undertaking given by him on April 27.

Roy, who was present in the courtroom, had told the court that he will pay Rs 1,500 crore on or before June 15 and Rs 552.22 crore exactly a month thereafter.

"As the contemnor has deposited Rs 790.18 crore, we are inclined to extend the time by ten working days so that the undertaking can be complied with. The balance amount of Rs 709.82 crores shall be deposited with the SEBI Sahara Refund Account by 4th July, 2017", the bench noted in its order. The bench, however, rejected Roy's plea that he be allowed to sell land, measuring 87.03 acres, in certain villages of Haridwar in Uttarakhand for Rs 109.75 crore.