Sebi has moved the Supreme Court seeking arrest of Sahara group chief Subrata Roy Sahara for the failure of two group companies to comply with court order to refund Rs 24,000 crore to its investors.
The market regulator mentioned the matter before a bench headed by Justice K S Radhakrishnan which agreed to hear its plea and posted the case for hearing in the first week of April.
Sebi urged the court to allow it to “take measures for arrest and detention of two male directors of Sahara group as well – Ashok Roy Choudhary and Ravi Shankar Dubey.
Sebi also sought direction that passports of all three be deposited with the Supreme court.
Sahara group and Sebi are locked in legal dispute over the refunding of 24,000 crore by its two companies Sahara India Real Estate Corporation (SIREC) and Sahara Housing Investment Corporation (SHIC) to its investors.
SEBI had in February ordered a freeze on all bank accounts of Sahara India Real Estate Corp. Ltd (SIRECL) and Sahara Housing Investment Corp. Ltd (SHICL), their promoters and directors after the Supreme Court criticized it for delaying taking action against the group.
SEBI has also asked the court to appoint or allow it to appoint a special officer for scrutinising and overseeing the property sale of Sahara companies.
Additionally, Sebi also asked hundreds of institutions including banks, other financial services firms and even government departments to be cautious in their business with these Sahara entities.
In a parallel development, the last hope of Sahara group to get more time to refund Rs 24,000 crore to its investors was on Friday dashed when a bench headed by Chief Justice Altamas Kabir, which had earlier extended the deadline to two companies of the group for refunding the money from November end to first week of February, refused to grant more time.
The Bench pulled up the Group for not complying with the court’s earlier order to return the money by the first week of February.