Bad Boy Billionaire Subrata Roy dies at 75: Life, times and controversies of the Sahara founder

Subrata Roy, the founder of Sahara India Pariwar breathed his last on Tuesday, November 14, 2023, at 75. According to a statement from the Sahara group, Roy succumbed to cardiorespiratory arrest after a prolonged battle with health complications.

Born just after the independence in 1948, in Bihar, Roy's journey from a mechanical engineering student to a business titan in finance, real estate, media, aviation and hospitality was like a dream come true, followed by his fall, where it all came crashing down like a house of cards.

Controversies

Despite the initial successes, Roy faced legal challenges, notably in 2014 when the Supreme Court ordered his arrest in a Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) case. The SEBI demanded he refund billions to investors who had invested in Sahara. The prolonged legal battles led to his time in Tihar and eventually parole.

• Roy rejected allegations of misconduct and accused the Indian National Congress Government of a witch hunt," highlighted the reports.
• It all started in 2010 when SEBI directed two entities of Sahara Group not to use and mobilise funds from equity markets, alleging evasion of regulations with Ponzi schemes. This marked the beginning of Subrata Roy's legal troubles.
• In 2012, the court ordered Sahara to refund deposits to investors along with 15% interest.
• The dispute revolved around Sahara's issuance of Optionally Fully Convertible Debentures (OFCD).

(OFCD is a type of debenture that can be converted into shares at a predetermined price after a certain period.)

• The court mandated Sahara to deposit an estimated Rs 24,000 crore with SEBI for further investor refunds, which it did not.
• Facing allegations of financial irregularities, Roy received an arrest warrant in 2014 following the Supreme Court order.
• The court ordered his detention for failing to appear in connection with the SEBI dispute, which he had ignored, resulting in his custody in Delhi's Tihar Jail.
• In response, Roy sent a100 trucks full of documents to SEBI triggering a warehousing nightmare for the regulator. The incident made headlines too.
• However, the Sahara Group consistently maintained that their deposit with SEBI amounted to "double payment," meaning that they had already refunded more than 95% of investors directly.
• In 2014, after his arrest, he secured interim bail on the condition of depositing Rs 10,000 crore to SEBI.
• Following this, reports of attempts to sell hotels and other properties to raise the required funds were reported.

ALSO READ: How does the Sahara refund portal work?

As of January 2019, Sahara still had to pay Rs 10,621 crore to meet its total liability.

Then came, the Bad Boy Billionaires

• In 2020, a new controversy emerged with the release of the Netflix documentary Bad Boy Billionaires: India, featuring Subrata Roy.
• Two petitions were filed against the release of the Netflix documentary in a Bihar District Court.
• The court passed an interim stay order on the petition filed by Roy against the release of the documentary.
• Netflix India, then threatened to move to the Supreme Court, following which the documentary was released.

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