Sahara case: Hearing deferred in SC, Roy to remain in jail

New Delhi: In a further setback to Sahara group chief Subrata Roy, the Supreme court on Monday deferred hearing in his case slated for tomorrow, apparently in the absence of any concrete refund proposal that could prolong his stay in the jail indefinitely.

On the last date of hearing on March 7, the apex court had asked the Sahara group to come out with "honourable proposal" for depositing Rs 20,000 crores of investors money and posted the hearing on March 11.

His lawyers were also told that they can raise the issue of Roy's request to be sent to police custody be taken up tomorrow.

The cause list put on the apex court website today, however, showed that the case, which was listed before a special bench of justices K S Radhakrishnan and J S Khehar, "stands deleted and the same is adjourned".

The reason for the adjournment has not been disclosed and Sahara group's lawyer expressed surprise over it. The Sahara group may mention the issue tomorrow before an appropriate bench to get the matter listed at the earliest.

The special bench had on March four sent Roy and two Directors Ravi Shankar Dubey and Ashok Roy Choudhary to judicial custody till March 11 while expressing unhappiness over the proposal of his group on the refund of investors' money.

It had rejected Sahara's proposal which had offered to pay Rs 2,500 crore within three days and the rest of the amount in five instalments by the end of July, 2015.

"It is not a proper proposal and the proposal should be honourable," the bench had said.