The bench, comprising justices TS Thakur, Anil R Dave and AK Sikri of the Supreme Court provided guidelines about the facilities t be provided to Mr.Subrata Ghosh within the Tihar premises. In the words of bench it has to be “comfortable but not more than what they deserve” . These arrangements are ordered to enable him to make negotiations with buyers of his property. The bench, which had earlier allowed Sahara to sell nine properties in the country, permitted it to sell hotels Dream Downtown and The Plaza in New York and Grosvenor House in London.
Sahara had on Thursday sought an “outhouse” within the jail to carry out negotiations in complete secrecy, along with video-conferencing facilities and secretarial services.Roy submitted that prospective buyers want him to be present during all negotiations and said that he will also need computer and Internet connection. The apex court on Tuesday had refused to release Roy to raise money to deposit Rs 10,000 crore with SEBI as directed to get regular bail.
The bench clarified that the case cannot be treated as a precedent as it was a “unique situation” where a person had to sell off his assets to secure his release from jail.
Appearing for Roy, senior counsel KTS Tulsi told the court that the group was willing to install its own wi-fi network in the guest house along with video-conferencing facilities. He also said that the court could declare the outhouse as a jail to facilitate negotiations.
Both suggestions were shot down by solicitor general Ranjit Kumar – the first on security considerations and the second on the ground that the jailed Sahara officials may insist on staying on there well after negotiations were over.
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