NEW DELHI: Sahara group will have to pay Rs 10,000 crore to get interim bail for its Chief Subrata Roy and firm's two directors, who are behind the bars since March four, the Supreme Court today ordered.

A bench of justices K S Radhakrishnan and J S Khehar said that interim bail will be granted only after the company fulfils the condition while the court agreed to defreeze the firms' bank accounts to raise the money.

"We are inclined to grant interim bail to the contemnors (Roy and two Directors) who are detained by virtue of our order dated March 4 on the condition that they would pay the amount of Rs.10,000 crores--out of which Rs.5,000 crores to be deposited before this court and for the balance a guarantee of a nationalized bank be furnished in favour of SEBI to be deposited before this Court.

"On compliance, the contemnors be released forthwith and the amount deposited be released to SEBI," the bench said.

Along with the Group's other two Directors Ravi Shankar Dubey and Ashok Roy Choudhary, 65-year-old Roy has been in judicial custody since March 4 for not abiding by the apex court's order for depositing Rs 20,000 crore of investors money with SEBI.
We make it clear that this order is passed in order to facilitate the contemnors to further raise the balance amount so as to comply with the Court's orders mentioned above," it said.

Sahara counsel then pleaded with the court to defreeze the bank accounts to raise the money which was accepted by the bench.

The court asked the group to give details of the bank accounts tomorrow and then they will pass the order.

It also noted in its order that fresh proposal filed by the group was not in compliance with its earlier order and asked the SEBI to file its response.

SEBI opposed the proposal saying it was not workable.

The group, in its proposal, assured the apex court that it will deposit Rs 2,500 crore within three working days and pay three instalments of Rs 3,500 cr each at the end of June, September, December and the remaining Rs 7,000 crore by March 31, 2015.- PTI 

SC rejects CBI probe into Muzaffarnagar riots

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Wednesday rejected the plea for CBI/SIT probe into the Muzaffarnagar riots that took place in September 2013.

The apex court bench headed by Chief Justice P. Sathasivam said that if the Centre and the State intelligence agencies had smelled of what was happening at the ground level, then the riots could have been prevented.

Declining the prayer for CBI/SIT probe, the court referred to a number of steps that the State police has taken to deal with the situation and the subsequent actions.

The court said that the State had failed to protect the serious violation of fundamental rights of the people and said it was duty-bound to protect and uphold the people’s rights.

In a reference to a state government circular saying that the relief would be available to Muslim victims only, the court in one of its several directions said that the availability of relief should not be on the basis of victim’s religious denomination and it should be provided to genuine victims. - IANS

LUCKNOW: With the SC holding UP government prima facie responsible for negligence in preventing communal violence in Muzaffarnagar, opposition parties today flayed the Akhilesh Yadav-led SP regime and demanded its immediate dismissal.

"The state government has lost the moral right to continue in office after today's orders by the apex court," the BJP and the Congress here said in their press statements.

"The state unit president of the BJP Laxmikant Bajpai will meet Governor BL Joshi this evening to request him to recommed dismissal of the SP government following the Supreme Court orders," spokesman Vijay Bahadur Pathak said.

Chairman of Congress' communication department, Satyadev Tripathi said, "if the state governmet does not resign on moral grounds, it needs to immediately dismiss the culprit minister after whose phone call the riots in Muzaffarnagar took place or else the people would feel that court's orders are not being honoured." "The SC verdict also proved that both the BJP and the SP together want to instigate riots and gain mileage on it in elections on communal grounds," Tripathi said.

Earlier today, a bench headed by Chief Justice P Sathasivam said "we prima facie hold the state government responsible for negligence in preventing such incidents." It also directed the state authorities to bring to book all accused persons irrespective of their political affiliations. - PTI 

PATNA: BJP's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi failed to persuade senior party leader and four-time Bihar MP Lal Muni Choubey against quitting the party and contest as an independent from the Buxar parliamentary constituency.

"Modi had personally telephoned Choubey late Tuesday night and tried to convince him not to contest as an independent from Buxar. But he failed as Choubey is adamant to file his nomination papers," said a BJP leader close to Choubey, who was considered close to former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

According to BJP leaders, after some central party leaders failed to convince Choubey, Modi spoke to him over telephone for nearly 10 minutes to convince not to contest polls against the official party candidate.

"Choubey told Modi that his decision to contest as an independent was final and there will be no change in his position," a BJP leader said.

However, BJP state president Mangal Pandey said that he was hopeful that Choubey will not go against the party.

Choubey was upset after he was denied a ticket to contest the Lok Sabha polls. 

BJP fielded another leader Ashwini Kumar Chaubey who was health minister in the Nitish Kumar government and hails from Bhagalpur.

Choubey told IANS over telephone Thursday that Buxar will witness a fight between the "Asli" (real) BJP candidate and "Nakli" (fake) BJP candidate.

"I have resigned from the BJP and am announcing that I will contest as an independent from Buxar," Choubey said.

He had made his intention clear last Monday, the day when another senior BJP leader Jaswant Singh filed his nomination from Rajasthan's Barmer seat as an independent candidate.

Choubey said that he will also campaign against Modi who is contesting from Varanasi.

He said that he was hurt by the way the BJP is treating its stalwarts like Vajpayee, L.K. Advani and Jaswant Singh.

"I cannot tolerate humiliation to Vajpayee, Advani and Jaswant in the party," he said.

Chaubey was elected for the first time from Buxar parliamentary constituency in 1996. He represented the seat continuously till 2009 when he lost to RJD leader Jagadanand Singh by 2,000 votes. - IANS

MUMBAI: A benchmark index of Indian equities markets gained 79.55 points or 0.36 percent during the pre-noon session on Wednesday after touching record high of 22,172.10 during the early trade surpassing the record high of 22,079.96 points it touched on Tuesday.

Good buying was observed in the capital goods, auto, metal and oil and gas sectors, while selling pressure was seen in the fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) sector.

The 30-scrip Sensitive Index (Sensex) of the S&P Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), which opened at 22,134.71 points, was trading at 22,134.76 points in the pre-noon session, up 79.55 points or 0.36 percent from the previous day's close at 22,055.21 points.

The Sensex touched a high of 22,172.10 points and a low of 22,110.71 points during the trade so far.

The S&P BSE capital goods index gained 125.04 points, auto index inched up by 142.50 points and oil and gas index moved up by 119.83 points and metal index increased by 231.47 points. 

However, FMCG index dropped by 85.29 points and healthcare index went down by 58.75 points. The wider 50-scrip Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) also gained 25.50 points or 0.39 percent and was trading at 6,615.50 points. - IANS

NEW DELHI: The rupee continued its rally against the American currency in early trade for the fourth trading day, gaining another 23 paise to 60.25 per dollar on persistent selling of the US unit by banks and exporters on the back of sustained foreign capital inflows.

Weakness of dollar in the overseas market also boosted the rupee value, a forex dealer said.

The Indian currency resumed higher at 60.28 per dollar as against the last closing level of 60.48 at the Interbank Foreign Exchange (Forex) Market and firmed up further to quote at 60.25 per dollar at 1000hrs (IST).

Sustained selling of dollars by banks and exporters in view of good foreign capital inflows into equity market was the main factor behind rise in rupee value.

In New York market, the dollar cut its rise after a round of mixed US data on Tuesday, but held narrowly higher against key rivals. - PTI