Subrata Roy, the jailed head of Sahara conglomerate, is back in a cell after living in a makeshift prison office for two months while working on the sale of three luxury hotels in New York and London, a deal that is still hanging. The Supreme Court had allowed the tycoon to use an office, phone, Internet connection and three secretaries in the Delhi prison to facilitate the sale of three hotels including Grosvenor House in London and the Plaza in New York.
Roy needs to raise 100 billion rupees ($1.6 billion) from the hotel sales to have a chance of obtaining release on bail. He has been moved back to a cell after a court-imposed deadline for the use of the office expired, although the businessman had requested more time, Tihar Jail spokesman Mukesh Prasad said.
"He was asking officials. We told him we don't have the power to extend those facilities," the spokesman said.
Roy was jailed for contempt of court in March amid a long-running dispute with India's capital markets watchdog over Sahara's failure to repay billions of dollars to investors who were sold outlawed bonds. A source close to the company said Roy did not have enough time to complete the sale.
"Any negotiation of big-ticket items takes time, out of which maximum time gets spent on conducting due diligence and working out the current valuations," the source said.
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