Jailed chief of the Sahara conglomerate Subrata Roy has once again been provided with an AC conference room with services such as Internet and video-conferencing at the Tihar prison in line with a Supreme Court order to complete negotiations for raising funds for his bail.
This comes after a similar 57-day stay at the special facility till September 30 by Roy on the apex court’s direction. Sahara group had then paid Rs 31 lakh to Tihar jail as charges for the facility. Roy has now been allowed to use the facility till February 20.
Sources in Tihar jail said Roy, along with two of Sahara’s directors Ashok Roy Choudhary and Ravi Shankar Dubey, who were lodged in Tihar, were transferred back to the conference room from the barracks around 6 pm.
66-year-old Roy has been lodged in Tihar jail for over nine months for non-refund of over Rs 20,000 crore with interest to depositors.
On January 9, the apex court had extended its August 1 order for conference facility for him in Tihar jail to raise the funds. The court had asked 65-year-old Roy to pay Rs 10,000 crore to get bail, out of which Rs 5,000 crore should be paid in cash and the rest in bank guarantee.
“We received the order from the court for restoration of the facilities given to Sahara chief earlier by 6 pm yesterday and the same was implemented by the jail administration. Roy has been allowed the facilities till February 20,” they said.
Roy’s stenographer, secretarial assistants and one technical assistant have been allowed to help him during the permitted time slot from 6 am to 8 pm on working days.
All the meetings that will be held at the conference room will be under surveillance of CCTV cameras. Roy will be using the fully air-conditioned room with services such as Wifi and video-conferencing, the source said.
Roy has also been allowed two laptops, two desktops, landline phones and one mobile phone, they said.
According to the court order, Roy will stay in the “special jail” till February 20.
Earlier, Roy stayed in the special facility for a total period of 57 days with directors Ashok Roy Choudhary and Ravi Shankar Dubey from August 5 to September 30.
Sahara group paid Rs 31 lakh to Tihar jail authorities as charges for stay of its chief in the air-conditioned facility and use of services such as phone, Internet and video-conferencing. He has been in the jail since March 4, 2014.