No takers for Sahara's Aamby Valley properties

New Delhi: The auctioning process of Sahara group's prized Aamby Valley properties has been put off after the auction notice failed to elicit any response from prospective buyers, the Supreme Court was informed on Thursday.

A bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra was informed about this by the official liquidator of the Bombay High Court.

The bench, which had appointed a court receiver to take over Sahara Group's property at Aamby Valley, had asked the official liquidator to proceed with the auctioning process of these properties to realise the money of the investors.

Besides putting off the auctioning process, the bench, which also comprised Justices Ranjan Gogoi and A K Sikri, directed two firms - Sai Rydam Realtors Private limited and Prime Down Town Real Estate Private limited- to deposit Rs 1,000 crore with the SEBI-Sahara account after the Sahara group submitted that the firms were willing to purchase their property at Vasai in Mumbai.

Senior advocate Vikas Singh, appearing for Sahara Group, said the sale of the Vasai property would fetch Rs 1,000 crore which would be deposited in the SEBI-Sahara account.

The bench then asked the two firms to deposit a Demand Draft of Rs 99 crore on Thursday itself and gave a timeline for depositing the remaining amount.

The bench asked the two firms to deposit Rs 200 crore by August 15 and Rs 682.8 crore by September 12, while cautioning them that any default would amount to contempt and the deposited amount would be forfeited.

On being informed that Sahara group has already sold its hotel at New York, the bench asked the company to file an affidavit giving details about the sale and the use of the money after that.

Sahara chief Subrata Roy, who spent almost two years in jail, has been on parole since May 6 last year. The parole was granted the first time to enable him to attend the funeral of his mother. It has been extended since then.