Supreme Court orders auction of Sahara’s Aamby Valley property

THE VERDICT Subrata Roy’s group fails to shell out Rs 5,000-plus crore that it owes investors

In a big setback to the Sahara Group, the Supreme Court on Monday ordered auction of its prime Aamby Valley property in the state worth Rs 34,000 crore. The court was annoyed at its chief Subrata Roy not adhering to his commitment before it to deposit Rs 5,092.6 crore of investors’ money out of an outstanding amount of Rs 14,000 crore by April 17.

The 8,900-acre Aamby Valley near Lonavla is one of the flagship projects of the Sahara Group.

“Now we are tired. We have heard a lot. Enough is enough. You cannot say something today and resile (abandon position) tomorrow,” said the three-judge bench headed by Justice Dipak Misra while ordering Subrata Roy — on parole now — to personally appear before it on April 27.

On Monday, the bench cautioned Roy from playing with the court's order and said noncompliance would invite the wrath of the law and ultimately he will be at his own peril.

The bench asked the official liquidator, attached with the Bombay High Court, to auction the Aamby Valley properties and report directly to it. The judges also directed Roy and his group as well as SEBI to provide all necessary details relating to the properties to the official liquidator within 48 hours.

Meanwhile, the top court restrained Prakash Swamy, who has filed an affidavit with regard to the sale of Sahara hotels in the USA, from leaving India and asked him to deposit Rs 10 crore as fine with the market regulator SEBI. Swamy will have to appear in person in the apex court on April 28.

The Supreme Court had on April 6 warned the Sahara Group that if it failed to deposit Rs 5092.6 crore in the SEBI-Sahara refund account by April 17 in pursuance of its order, it will be compelled to auction its property at the Aamby Valley near Pune. The top court had told the group that no extension of time would be granted for depositing the amount.

Besides Roy, two other directors — Ravi Shankar Dubey and Ashok Roy Choudhary — were arrested for failure of the group's two companies — Sahara India Real Estate Corporation and Sahara Housing Investment Corp Ltd — to comply with the court's August 31, 2012, order to return Rs 24,000 crore to their investors.

The bench asked the liquidator, attached with Bombay High Court, to auction the Aamby Valley properties and report directly to it