Sahara’s Aamby property will be auctioned if money not deposited: Supreme Court

Supreme Court

New Delhi, March 21 – The Supreme Court on Tuesday said if the Sahara Group fails to deposit Rs 5,092 crore with market regulator SEBI as ordered, the group’s Aamby Valley property in Maharashtra will be auctioned.

The top court by its February 28 order had permitted Sahara to sell some of its properties but asked it to deposit Rs 5,092.64 crore on or before April 13, 2017.

A bench of Justice Dipak Misra, Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justice A.K. Sikri said the said property will be put under the hammer if it failed to deposit Rs 5092. 64 crore by April 13 as it allowed MG Capital Holdings LLC to deposit Rs 750 crores in the Sahara-SEBI Refund Account.

MG Capital Holdings LLC is an international real estate company that is in the process of buying Sahara’s stakes in New York-based Plaza Hotel for $550 million.

The top court had on February 28 asked the MG Capital Holdings LLC to deposit Rs 750 crore with its registry on or before April 17 — the next date of hearing — to establish its bona fides.

The real estate company had moved the top court for permission to do due diligence for acquiring Sahara’s stakes in the New York Hotel.

On an application by the real estate company, the court asked it to deposit Rs 750 crore in the Sahara-SEBI Refund Account.

The top court, by its August 31, 2012, order had asked Sahara India Real Estate Corporation Ltd. (SIRECL) and the Sahara Housing Investment Corporation Ltd. (SHICL) to return to the investors Rs 17,600 crore with 15 per cent interest that the two companies raised through Optionally Fully Convertible Debentures in 2008 and 2009.

Subrata Roy, his son-in-law Ashok Roy Choudhary and group Director Ravi Shankar Dubey, who are now out on parole, were sent to Tihar Jail on March 4, 2014, for failure of the two companies to comply with the court’s order.

Roy was granted parole on May 6, 2016, to perform the last rites of his mother who passed away on May 5. Besides Roy, Choudhary, too, was released on parole. Dubey was released on parole later.