Why more than a dozen lawyers couldn’t keep Subrata Roy out of jail

Fbiz Editor 5 Mar 14

How many high-powered lawyers does it take to keep one bigwig out of jail? Two? Three? Five?

Well, if the gentleman we are talking about is one Subrata Roy, boss of the Sahara Group, even 16 lawyers have not been able to keep him out. Some of the 16 doubled up as lawyers for three group directors who are also in the dock with Roy for failure to comply with the Supreme Court’s orders of August 2012 for the refund of Rs 24,000 crore raised illegally by two Sahara companies.

Roy is in hot water – and in Tihar jail till 11 March, along with two directors – because he claims he has paid the money back to investors, many of them fictitious, when the court asked him to route the payments through Sebi.

Sixteen lawyers apparently could not make him understand this simple point. The bench made a sharp observation on this.

“All through, you have engaged the best and the most bright counsel for arguing your case but you have not made payment to investors," the bench with Justices KS Radhakrishnan and JS Khehar said.

The roster of Sahara lawyers starts with senior advocate and maverick BJP MP Ram Jethmalani and included Ravi Shankar Prasad, Rajeev Dhavan and CA Sundaram, among others.

At yesterday’s hearing, Subrata Roy’s lawyers came up with many explanations for his failure to comply with its orders, including that it would be wrong to ask Roy to cough up money for investors who had already been paid.

Justice Radhakrishnan rubbished Sahara’s claim that the money had been paid directly to investors as “absolutely wrong”.

Even as Roy’s lawyers tried their best to get him out of the hole, Roy himself managed to dig himself in deeper

The best exchange came when an exasperated court explained why it had to deal harshly with Roy. The bench said: “You pushed us to the corner. Had you been serious, this position would not have arisen."

At some point, Roy told the court: “I am giving an assurance I will pay the money to you."

Justice Khehar gave him a curt rejoinder: “We don't need from anything from you.”

Roy, now lodged in Tihar, will be wondering what he did wrong with 16 lawyers on his side.