Supreme Court wants Sahara's Aamby Valley property auctioned

It had last week said that if the conglomerate failed to put in Rs 5,092.6 crore in the Securities and Exchange Board of India-Sahara refund account by Monday (April 17), it would be forced to auction the premium property, NDTV reported.

During the last hearing in February, the Supreme Court bech headed by Justice Dipak Mishra had ordered to attach the Aamby Valley of Sahara.

The apex court has appointed the Bombay High Court's official liquidator for auctioning the property.

In March, the Supreme Court had directed the Sahara Group to deposit Rs 5092.6 crore by 7 April in the SEBI-Sahara account to keep its chief Subrata Roy out of jail.

The court also imposed costs of Rs10 crore on MG Capital Holdings, a US-based real estate company which had moved the apex court seeking to buy Sahara's stake in the overseas hotels.

The court also slapped a fine of Rs 10 crore on Prakash Swami, the representative of a company that had offered to buy Sahara's Plaza hotel in NY but failed to deposit Rs 750 crore as directed by the court.

Sahara had admitted before the top court it still had to pay Rs 14,000 crore as principal money to SEBI and that it had already paid Rs 11,000 crore. His parole has been extended by the court ever since. Sebi had alleged that Roy did not comply with the SC directive to return the investors' money.

"Indulgence shown by the court have been misused", said the apex court bench, referring to several parole leaves granted Roy to attend rituals after his mother passed away.

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. Director Vandana Bhargava was, however, not taken into custody.

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