New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday sent Sahara chief Subrata Roy and two of his group directors to Tihar jail for a week for not complying with its order on refunding around '20,000 crore of investors’ money. The day also saw high drama in the court premises, when a Gwalior resident threw ink on Mr Roy and blackened his face calling him a chor (thief).
Mr Roy, who was produced in court amid high drama, apologised before the bench and pleaded he be granted "three-four months" to sell property to raise the funds, saying, "With folded hands, I am begging you to save us. Give us time. I have faith in you. Punish me if I don’t comply with your order." The court, however, was dismissive of his plea, and said the group had adopted "various dilatory tactics" despite several opportunities being given to it to comply with its orders.
"We tried to accommodate you. But you said go to hell. What can we do? You pushed us to the corner. Had you been serious, this position would not have arisen," said a bench of Justices K.S. Radhakrishnan and J.S. Kehar. Expressing dissatisfaction with Sahara’s proposal on how it would refund the money, the bench said it should come up with a more concrete proposal. "We are not happy with the proposal. No concrete proposal has come up so far. We are not accepting this proposal. There is no bank guarantee," it said.
The court ordered that along with Mr Roy, two of the group’s directors, Ravi Shankar Dubey and Ashok Roy Choudhary, be sent to judicial custody here till March 11, the next date on which the matter pertaining to the refund will be heard. The bench, however, did not send Vandana Bhargava, a woman director of the group, to custody.
At the hearing the court came down heavily on Mr Roy saying, "We have found that the contemnors have maintained an unreasonable stand throughout the proceedings before Sebi, SAT, HC and even before this court."
