Fractured auctioning of Aamby valley, a property of Sahara was allowed by Supreme Court on Wednesday as the property failed to attract buyers earlier in one go in the international market. The court has appointed a liquidator and receiver of the property to complete the task within two months. Aamby valley is a township developed by Sahara India Pariwar in the Pune district of Maharashtra. It consists of luxury resorts, manmade lakes and an airport. It is a planned city with world class infrastructure and facilities.
Bench comprising of chief justice Dipak Mishra and Justice Ranjan Gogoi and justice A K Sikri, has allowed the proposal to sell the property by dividing it into parts. According to the sources, the property will be sold in two parts after the liquidator and the receiver has received an interest from two corporate houses which are – Mahindra and Piramal groups to purchase few of its assets in the property.
Appearing from the side of the receiver, advocate Darius Khambata informed the bench that the aamby valley is a vast property and it will be hence not possible to sell it in one go, as no one participated in the auction process in spite of advertisement which were not only advertised in India but also in other countries. He also highlighted the fact that the property such as international golf course, international school, hotels and restaurants can be used to raise money which the company has to pay to SEBI. Advocate also said that the process of sale of identified saleable properties has been already initiated and will be completed before the end of March.
The senior advocate from SEBI, Arvind Datar, informed the bench that Sahara still has to pay Rs 11,569 crore out of Rs 25,781 crore of the principal amount to market regulator.
Vikas singh, advocate representing Sahara, pleaded the court not to put assets under hammer and contended that the company had already refunded the money to its investors. He has asked the court to put verification on investor documents and proposed to give bank guarantee for the due amount. The company had already paid Rs. 50 crore for digitisation of documents.
The earlier attachment of aamby valley project for selling was stayed and fractured auction was initiated to fetch the amount due from Sahara. The plea of Sahara will be only considered in the later on stages. In January 2012, Sahara valued the property as Rs 34,000 crore but the liquidator pinned the property for Rs 43,000 crore. Sahara chief Subroto Roy was arrested and was sent to jail for not paying the amount, was released on May 2016. Since then he is out on bail.
Courtesy/By: Sanchita Mukherjee
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08 Feb 2018
