New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday issued non bailable arrest warrant against Sahara Chief Subrata Roy for his failure to appear before it in connection with the case in which his two companies have been directed to refund Rs 20,000 crore to investors.
"We had already declined yesterday Roy's plea seeking exemption from personal appearance. He has not appeared even today and we are issuing non bailable warrant returnable for March 4," a bench comprising justices K S Radhakrishnan and J S Khehar said.
At the outset when senior advocate Ram Jethmalani, appearing for Roy, informed the court that he has been unable to appear because of the ill health of his 95-year-old mother, the bench shot back "the arms of this court are very long.
Yesterday only we had refused your plea for exemption from personal appearance. We will issue the non bailable warrant.
This is the Supreme Court of the land."
"Yesterday we told you that we are not inclined to exempt him from personal appearance. If other directors can appear, why can't you?," the bench said.
The court had on February 20 come down heavily on the Sahara group for not refunding Rs 20,000 crore of investors money despite its order and summoned Roy, Ravi Shankar Dubey, Ashok Roy Choudhary and Vandana Bhargava, directors of its firms--Sahara India Real Estate Corp Ltd (SIREC) and Sahara India Housing Investment Corp Ltd (SHIC) to be personally present before it today.