Sahara told to seek AMC’s help

Doubting the proposals of Sahara over the inordinate delay in sale of three properties abroad, the Supreme Court on Wednesday suggested that the contentious properties be entrusted to an Asset Management Agency to execute the sale.

A Bench of Justices T.S. Thakur and Rohinton Nariman asked the amicus curiae and senior advocate Shekar Naphade to examine and respond to the suggestion of the court. Sahara chief Subrato Roy is in jail since March 4, 2014 and he is unable to come out as he could not mobilise Rs 10,000 crore surety, a condition imposed for his release on bail. 

Earlier Mr Naphade brought to the notice of the court that there was some problem with the deal entered into by Sahara with Mirach Capital, the agency involved in selling properties abroad as the American Bank had said the letter produced by Mirach Capital had been forged. He said “something had gone wrong and both the parties are accusing each other and the Supreme Court has been taken for a ride.” He said “it is difficult to believe that Sahara, a company with vast experience can be cheated like this.”

However, senior counsel S. Ganesh told the court that the company was a victim and it had filed a FIR against Mirach Capital. He said “the representative of Mirach met all of us and the amicus curiae and he was even present in the Supreme Court during the previous hearing. We will file a detailed affidavit.” He further  informed the bench that pursuant to the apex court’s order, the RBI had granted approval for the deal.

Justice Thakur observed, “Everything is getting into some problem, we can’t get stuck in this kind of situation.  We will ask the committee headed by former apex court judge B. N. Agrawal to examine transferring properties to an asset management agency. People who are offering Rs 5,000 or Rs 10,000 crores are producing forged letters. What kind of people are they? You file a proper affidavit and we will take up the matter for hearing”.