The Supreme Court on Tuesday refused to release Sahara chief Subrata Roy, who has been behind bars for nearly five months, on interim bail or parole while allowing the sale of his luxury hotels in New York and London to raise money to deposit ₹10,000 crore with SEBI. The apex court, however, assured 65-year-old Roy that it would allow him to go out of jail during the day, under police custody, to negotiate the property sale with buyers.
“We will allow you to hold negotiations outside jail between 10 am to 4 pm under police custody,” a Bench headed by Justice TS Thakur said, adding it is “premature” at this stage to make such an arrangement as there is no “concrete” proposal right now.
The Bench, also comprising justices Anil R Dave and AK Sikri, asked him to approach the court when there was a proposal and assured him that suitable arrangements would be made by it. The Bench also allowed Sahara to sell nine properties in the country along with hotels Dream Downtown and The Plaza in New York and Grosvenor House in London.