New Delhi: The auctioning process of the Sahara India group’s prized Aamby Valley properties has been put off after the notice for bids failed to elicit any response from prospective buyers, the Supreme Court was informed on Thursday.
A bench headed by chief justice Dipak Misra was informed about this by the official liquidator of the Bombay high court. The bench, which had appointed a court receiver to take over the Sahara India group’s property at Aamby Valley, had asked the official liquidator to proceed with the auctioning process of these properties to realise money of investors.
Besides putting off the auctioning process, the bench, which also comprises Justices Ranjan Gogoi and A.K. Sikri, directed two firms — Sai Rydam Realtors and Prime Down Town Real Estate — to deposit Rs1,000 crore with the Sebi-Sahara account after the Sahara India group submitted that the firms were willing to purchase its property at Vasai in Mumbai.
Senior advocate Vikas Singh, appearing for the Sahara India group, said the sale of the Vasai property would fetch ₹1,000 crore, which would be deposited in the Sebi-Sahara account.
The bench then asked the two firms to deposit a demand draft of ₹99 crore today itself and set out a timeline for depositing the remaining amount. The bench asked the two firms to deposit ₹200 crore by 15 August and ₹682.8 crore by 12 September, while cautioning them that any default would amount to contempt and the deposited amount would be forfeited.
On being informed that Sahara India group has already sold its hotel in New York, the bench asked the company to file an affidavit giving details about the sale and the use of the money thereafter. The Sahara India group, meanwhile, informed the bench that the hotel was mortgaged with Bank of China at its London branch. The group undertook to file a detailed affidavit in this regard.
The group had on 19 April told the court that it would sell a parcel of the Aamby Valley properties and deposit the amount in the account by 15 May since auctioning would not fetch the desired price. The apex court had then said if the group failed to sell a parcel of the Aamby Valley property by 15 May and deposit the amount in the refund account, the Bombay high court’s official liquidator would proceed with the auctioning process.
The group had earlier said it has already deposited over ₹17,000 crore and sought a hearing saying a lot of issues needed to be looked into.
The official liquidator, in its report filed in the apex court, had said it has commenced the procedure for auctioning the Aamby Valley property, for which bids would be invited.
Sahara group chief Subrata Roy, who spent almost two years in jail, has been on parole since 6 May 2017. Parole was granted the first time to enable him to attend the funeral of his mother. It has been extended since.
Besides Roy, two other directors, Ravi Shankar Dubey and Ashok Roy Choudhary, were arrested for failure of the group’s two companies, Sahara India Real Estate Corporation (SIRECL) and Sahara Housing Investment Corp Ltd (SHICL), to comply with the court’s 31 August 2012, order to return ₹24,000 crore to their investors.