India’s Sahara boss gives up to police after court’s order
Print Edition
The head of India’s giant Sahara group surrendered to police yesterday, two days after the Supreme Court ordered his arrest over delays in repaying billions of dollars illegally collected from small investors.
Subrata Roy “wilfully submitted himself” to police in Lucknow, capital of northern Uttar Pradesh state where the group has its headquarters, Sahara’s executive director told a New Delhi news conference.
“As a law-abiding citizen of the country, this morning he wilfully submitted himself to Lucknow police. He is cooperating with the authorities,” said Seemanto Roy, who is also the son of Subrata Roy.
On Tuesday, the court ordered Subrata Roy’s arrest over delays in repaying money collected from rural savers via bond sales.
The Sahara empire extends from a stake in a Formula 1 racing team to a sprawling Indian luxury township, and once included the New York Plaza Hotel.
Sahara, famous in India via its former sponsorship of the national cricket team, raised 200 billion rupees (US$3.2 billion) from millions of savers in a process judged by authorities in 2012 to be against the law.
Sahara says that it is only helping small investors outside the banking system and that it has never defaulted on them.
Roy’s lawyers yesterday asked the top court to withdraw the arrest warrant but the request was rejected and the matter was listed for hearing next week.
Sahara’s woes began in 2008 when it shut operations as India’s biggest non-bank deposit-taking firm on orders of the court, which was worried about the investments in which money was being parked.
Observers say much of Sahara’s fundraising success rested on the fact that vast numbers of rural Indians have no access to banks and no other place to put their money than in poorly regulated non-bank institutions.
A statement to the media yesterday quoted Subrata Roy as saying he was unable to handle “this level of agony and humiliation” and was willing to comply with the court’s orders.
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