The Supreme Court on Wednesday
ordered the arrest of Sahara chief Subrata Roy for his failure to appear before
it in connection with the Rs.19,000-crore deposits his company has not refunded
to its investors.
It directed issuance of a
non-bailable warrant for producing him in court at 2 p.m. on March 4.
A Bench of Justice K.S.
Radhakrishnan and Justice J.S. Khehar took a serious view of Mr. Roy defying
the court’s ordering him to appear before it and told senior counsel Ram Jethmalani:
“The arms of this court are very long. Yesterday you made a similar request. We
declined. Today you are making the same request. When other directors have
appeared, why can’t he?”
Mr. Jethmalani replied, “His [Mr.
Roy’s] mother is seriously ill and he has to be with his mother, who is holding
his hand. So much can be said on merit. But all I want to say is you [court]
don’t require his presence today as the directors of the two companies are
present.”
In its order, the Bench said: “This
court passed an order on February 20 directing the personal presence of the
alleged contemnors and the directors of the respondent companies. On our
directions, Mr. Ashok Roy Choudhary, Mr. Ravi Shankar Dubey and Ms. Vandana
Bhargava are present in court today.”
On Tuesday, Mr. Jethmalani had
sought exemption from personal appearance for Mr. Roy, but it was turned down.
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