SC extends parole of Sahara Chief Subrata Roy till July 11

The Supreme Court has extended the parole of Sahara Chief Subrata Roy till 11th July to enable him to deposit 200 crore rupees with market regulator, Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI). A bench headed by Chief Justice TS Thakur, however, directed Roy and Sahara Group Director Ashok Roy Choudhary, also released on parole, to furnish individual undertaking to prove their bonafide and seriousness. The court said, if they fail to deposit the amount by July 11th, they will have to surrender and go back to Tihar jail.

Advocate Kapil Sibal, on behalf of Roy, assured the court that the group will deposit 200 crores with SEBI by July 11, and another 200-300 crores could be arranged by August 4 if the court extends the parole further. The bench said, it would examine



the plea for grant of further parole after they fulfill their commitment by July 11.

The bench also said, Sahara can go ahead with the sale and alienation of their other properties to raise the amount of 5,000 crore rupees as a bank guarantee they have to deposit in addition to 5,000 crores to get bail.

The bench held that SEBI would, meanwhile, continue with the auction of properties of Sahara. The court had ordered Roy's release on parole for 4 weeks last Friday, to attend rituals following the death of his mother.

Roy has been in Tihar Jail since March 4, 2014, for his companies’ failure to return about 24,000 crore rupees collected from small investors in the form of debentures later declared as illegal by SEBI and the Supreme Court.