Statement from Sahara Counsels Ayush Chaudhary & Abhinav Mani Tripathi

We are thankful to the Honorable Court for giving us permission to raise funds via mortgage and sale of certain properties. Looking at the magnitude of the transactions involved, the Hon’ble Court has allowed us 90 days time to work from the conference room within Tihar Jail court premises, extending the facilities of video conferencing and meeting with various parties.

Apart from the mortgage of the three foreign properties, court has also allowed sale of ten domestic properties and a land parcel of Aamby Valley City. We are in a very advanced stage with many parties and shall execute these deals at the earliest. We have already deposited nearly Rs.4, 000/- crores in the ‘Sahara-SEBI Account’ and we shall be very shortly depositing the remaining amount along with the Bank Guarantee.

Sahara Counsel

Ayush Chaudhary & Abhinav Mani Tripathi

Sahara Employees’ Salaries Overdue Following Liquidity Crunch

Sahara’s conflict with Sebi over investor repayments has begun to effect salaries of the group’s employees, which are getting overdue because of a major liquidity crunch. Majorly corporate offices of the crisis-hit group are facing salary delays. Even day-to-day petty operating expenses and statutory payments are getting due. A Sahara spokesperson said “We are working to diffuse this crisis, which has also created grave difficulties for our employees. Sahara India is one big Pariwar (family) and all the employees are its members, who are standing together in these difficult times.” The company has a total of 10 lakh employees, which include permanent and part time employees and agents. An exact number of salaries overdue was hard to summate but it has been estimated to go up to “tens of thousands”.

Sahara is also working hard to raise money for getting its chief, Subrata Roy, and two of its officials released from imprisonment from Tihar jail, where they have been for an year now. The spokesperson said that Sahara is facing liquidity crunch for a year now due to restriction and double payment of investor refund. This has led to delays in salaries and other operating obligations and expenses. He added, “We are however releasing the salaries time to time based on the fund flow on a continuous basis. The delayed salaries of junior staff were released just a few days back as extra care has been taken for our junior staff. Soon salaries of other brackets will be released.” He also said that the companies which have their own fund-flow are in a better situation to pay salaries without much delay. These include their luxury hotel Sahara Star in Mumbai, resort town Aamby Valley City and the 500-bed tertiary care Sahara Hospital in Lucknow.

Sahara still maintains that it has repaid more than 95 percent of its investors directly. But the group was asked by the Supreme Court in August 2011 to deposit over Rs 24,000 crore with Sebi for refund to investors. The spokesperson added that “any fund raised by the group, which we are doing, through sales and mortgaging of properties, that money shall go to Sahara-Sebi account and nothing will come to the corporate”. And he said that the payment to Sebi is a double payment for them. Sahara till today has already deposited Rs 11,000 crore (including interest) with Sebi. The spokesperson also said that “Sahara’s two Companies in question collected Rs 25,780 crore through OFCD (Optionally Fully Convertible Debenture) schemes. Of this, Sahara repaid almost 95 per cent (around Rs 23,000 crore) of OFCD liabilities of these two companies by 2012.”

Recent attempts by Sahara to raise funds through a US-based company Mirach Capital failed. The group said it is now in talks with a European bank and a Dutch pension fund and some other entities to raise funds for Subrata Roy’s release.

Sahara Employees’ Salaries Overdue Following Liquidity Crunch

Sahara’s conflict with Sebi over investor repayments has begun to effect salaries of the group’s employees, which are getting overdue because of a major liquidity crunch. Majorly corporate offices of the crisis-hit group are facing salary delays. Even day-to-day petty operating expenses and statutory payments are getting due. A Sahara spokesperson said “We are working to diffuse this crisis, which has also created grave difficulties for our employees. Sahara India is one big Pariwar (family) and all the employees are its members, who are standing together in these difficult times.” The company has a total of 10 lakh employees, which include permanent and part time employees and agents. An exact number of salaries overdue was hard to summate but it has been estimated to go up to “tens of thousands”.

Sahara is also working hard to raise money for getting its chief, Subrata Roy, and two of its officials released from imprisonment from Tihar jail, where they have been for an year now. The spokesperson said that Sahara is facing liquidity crunch for a year now due to restriction and double payment of investor refund. This has led to delays in salaries and other operating obligations and expenses. He added, “We are however releasing the salaries time to time based on the fund flow on a continuous basis. The delayed salaries of junior staff were released just a few days back as extra care has been taken for our junior staff. Soon salaries of other brackets will be released.” He also said that the companies which have their own fund-flow are in a better situation to pay salaries without much delay. These include their luxury hotel Sahara Star in Mumbai, resort town Aamby Valley City and the 500-bed tertiary care Sahara Hospital in Lucknow.

Sahara still maintains that it has repaid more than 95 percent of its investors directly. But the group was asked by the Supreme Court in August 2011 to deposit over Rs 24,000 crore with Sebi for refund to investors. The spokesperson added that “any fund raised by the group, which we are doing, through sales and mortgaging of properties, that money shall go to Sahara-Sebi account and nothing will come to the corporate”. And he said that the payment to Sebi is a double payment for them. Sahara till today has already deposited Rs 11,000 crore (including interest) with Sebi. The spokesperson also said that “Sahara’s two Companies in question collected Rs 25,780 crore through OFCD (Optionally Fully Convertible Debenture) schemes. Of this, Sahara repaid almost 95 per cent (around Rs 23,000 crore) of OFCD liabilities of these two companies by 2012.”

Recent attempts by Sahara to raise funds through a US-based company Mirach Capital failed. The group said it is now in talks with a European bank and a Dutch pension fund and some other entities to raise funds for Subrata Roy’s release.

SEBI versus Sahara: Rs. 22 crores versus Rs. 18000 crores

Sebi has around Rs.11, 500 crores of Sahara‘s money, including bank interest.

By the time Saharasri Subrata Roy shall come out, that is, when full bail amount is paid, Money of Sahara India Pariwar Company lying with Sebi will be Rs.18, 000 crores cash.  Since no bank is ready to give Bank Guarantee to Sahara India Pariwar without 100% cash margin, it is going to be Rs.18, 000 crores of cash with Sebi.

While in the last 26 months, Sebi had to pay only around Rs.2 crores. More importantly, Sebi came out with an All-India Media Advertisement, twice, inviting investors for repayments. But till now, they have received from all over India, a demand of Rs.20 crores only. A question can now arise that whether the investors exist or do not exist; meaning, are these all fictitious accounts?

Only verification can clarify this point, as mandated in Hon’ble Court’s order of 2012. Since then, in almost past 26 months, Sebi has not started verification; the reason best known to them.

About fictitious account, it must be mentioned here another issue pertaining to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) which is as follows:

Between 2008 and 2012, on RBI’s order, Sahara paid back Rs.18, 000 crores under the command of RBI’s two Statutory Auditors and 3 RBI nominated Directors.  The bank account of that amount was controlled by the RBI.  A strict rule was followed that when RBI auditors finally checked the identity of all investors (KYC), only then the next months’ payments were all owed by the RBI and during the process, in 4 years, RBI did not find any fictitious account; not even one.

Sahara India: Legal debate over Roy’s detention gathers pace

It’s been over six months that Subrata Roy, the flamboyant chief of Sahara, has been in Delhi’s Tihar jail. In the meantime, the hopes of his release have risen and ebbed. And as the days go by, it is becoming uncertain when he will be able to furnish Rs 10,000 crore to Sebi — a pre-condition set by the Supreme Court for his release.

Company sources say that it’s not that the company doesn’t have the money. The issue is Roy’s current predicament. “The entire world knows that he’s being forced to make distress sales to raise this amount and so he is getting badly discounted offers for his valuable overseas properties. Now, which businessman wants to sell his jewels at throwaway prices,” said a company executive.

Roy’s case — and along with him that of two other Sahara directors, Ashok Roy Choudhury and R S Dubey — has few parallels. Technically, Rs 10,000 crore is not a bail amount; bail was granted to him five months ago, but it came with the pre-condition of him paying Rs 10,000 crore for his release. Legal experts say this is an extraordinary pre-condition.

There is also lack of clarity about the charges that have been slapped against Roy and the two Sahara directors. If it is contempt of court — Roy refused to appear before the Supreme Court on the given date citing his mother’s illness — he has already served the maximum punishment of six months prescribed for the offence.

“The question to be debated is whether there is a reasonable limit for how long someone can be incarcerated under the present circumstances — or if the six-month limit prescribed under the Contempt of Courts Act applies here,” said Gopal Sankaranarayanan, senior advocate, Supreme Court.

Article 21 of the Constitution deals with an individual’s personal liberty. It states, “No person shall be deprived of his life or personal liberty except according to procedure established by law.”

Some feel that this Article is being violated. Abhishek Manu Singhvi said, “Although currently I am not arguing the case, in my professional opinion, the continued incarceration may well be held to be a violation of his right to life under Article 21 (of Constitution of India) and a fit ground for a curative petition.”

These legal points aside, it is now clear that Roy — about whom company executives say was not an original respondent in this case — will have to pay the amount as ordered by the Supreme Court. The question is whether he should be kept in prison until he coughs up with Rs 10,000 crore, or should he be released with due safeguards, allowed to negotiate the best terms for sale of assets, and told to pay the amount within a set deadline.

Roy has been in Tihar jail, under judicial custody, since March 4 this year. In early August, Roy was given a 10 working days to negotiate sale or lease of Sahara group’s hotel properties to raise the Rs 10,000-crore bail amount. According to people within the group, he has been making ‘relentless efforts to sell the properties’ in order to meet the criterion set forth by the apex court, ‘which shows his bonafide intention to comply with the orders passed by the court’.

Reference Link: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/business/india-business/Legal-debate-over-Roys-detention-gathers-pace/articleshow/44661645.cms

Must watch: Inequality and injustice against Subrata Roy, is the reason his fame?

If one is found guilty of breaking a rule before the court of law, he is supposed to serve the requisite punishment. There is no place for either media trials or for that matter a judiciary which believes it has the powers to send people to jail without a conviction. It is a real sorry state in India that despite of being the largest democracy, more than half of the people in jail are still undergoing trials and have not been proved as convicts for what they are accused. Has anyone ever thought about what the person and relatives go through, who is to bring back the lost time?

One such victim to media and justice-delayed trial is Subrata Roy. If he is guilty he needs to rot in jail but to deny him a bail every time is violation of the very principles that the Constitution of India was founded on. “I am in complete disagreement of the justice meted out by the Supreme Court to Subrata Roy. If an actor, Sanjay Dutt is allowed on permanent parole to look after an ailing wife, why is Tarun Tejpal not allowed to meet his dying mother? I know I will have an army of feminists attack me for this, but the fact is Sanjay Dutt was tried and convicted. Tarun Tejpal has been jailed, convicted and will probably be tried. Is this fair? Most importantly, is it right?” said a famous socialite.

Subrata Roy is being tried in a civil matter and is now in jail because the judges want a proposal. To send a man to jail indefinitely without allowing him bail is once against the principles of freedom and liberty that are every Indian’s rights.

Amartya Sen in his wonderful book ‘The Idea of Justice’ opines that there is an inherent difference between neeti and nyaya. One is about the process and the other is about justice. But then he goes on to explain, that justice is ultimately all about fairness. According to this logic, in Subrata Roy’s case, there has been no fairness. The socialite adds to his statement “this is what mobocracy is all about and this is what we often deem to be kangaroo justice. We all need to pause. People like me who go on television and pronounce judgment on people or those who have the faith of every Indian sitting in court-rooms and dispensing justice as if we were living in medieval times. We need to question the fairness of all we do. In that, we shall find the answers to a more robust and free India.”

We can clearly make out a very positive support for Subrata Roy outside the jail. There are many politicians, famous actors and actresses who have claimed their support for him in public. Let us pause for a minute and think what is it was us and not him in this given situation. If we all agree that being famous is why he is being misjudged, can we not come forward for his support like other cases?

Sahara India Pariwar: Truth always wins at last

Subrata Roy a true Indian – Truth can never be defeated

Sahara India Pariwar Desh ki Dhadkan

Sahara Case : Advocate Gautam Awasthi Thanked Supreme Court

Statement of Advocate Gautam Awasthi on yesterday’s Supreme Court Proceedings

“Today, we are extremely thankful to our Hon’ble Judges who have opened the path after 5 months for Saharasree to reintroduce him and his presence in the work sphere. He never could get a chance to talk to anybody. Here in the jail, Subrata Roy Sahara used to get only 35 minutes and additional few calls at times in a week.

Actually from today only the business is starting to fulfill the direction of Hon’ble Court though these are all double payments.

So, on 22nd July, 2014, we got the permission for mortgage and sale of overseas assets and today on 1st August, 2014, we are going to get the support of all kinds of communications round the clock with office staff and technical support.

Since all the assets, every Rupee, every inch of all immovable properties, every gram of movable properties were under absolute embargo no payment in compliance of order dated 26th March, 2014 could have been made. Immediately after lifting of embargo on Bank account etc. things have started improving from beginning of June and consequently a substantial part of the cash payment of Rs.5000 crores could be deposited.”