Patna HC issues arrest warrant against Sahara chief Subrata Roy

The Patna High Court on Friday issued an arrest warrant against Sahara India chairman Subrata Roy after he failed to appear before it despite repeated summons.

It also directed the DGP of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh and Police Commissioner of Delhi to arrest and produce Roy before the court.

Hearing of the multi-crore fraudulent cases against Subrato Roy is underway in the single bench of Justice Sandeep Kumar. More than 2,000 cases have been filed against Roy. The court said the businessman was given enough time to appear before it but he refused. Hence, it had to issue an arrest warrant against him.

Roy was earlier asked to appear before court on May 11 but he refused. Hence, the court made strong remarks against him and said that Roy is not above law. He will have to physically appear before the court. Justice Sandeep Kumar asked him to appear on Thursday (May 12) but failed following which, he was called on Friday (May 13) at 10.30 am but he again denied.

Though his lawyer tried to cover up his absence citing his old age (74), illness and security threat, but the court refused to accept it and asked him to appear before it.

Notably, as per sources, over 3 crore people invested more than Rs 24,000 crore in various schemes, fixed deposits and debentures in Sahara India till 2008. The SEBI had detected the wrong-doings of Sahara India in 2010. The way Sahara India raised funds from the common people, its attributes to money laundering as per SEBI norms.

The Supreme Court also said that Sahara India was involved in money laundering and directed the company to return the money to the investors with 15 per cent interest.