SC rejects Sahara Chief's plea for being kept in house arrest

New Delhi, Apr 9:

Group chief

will continue to remain in

as the

on Wednesday rejected his plea that he be put under house arrest to enable him negotiate deals for arranging money to repay investors.

"We have said that you are in judicial custody. You are under our custody. We have not sent you in civil imprisonment. In case of civil imprisonment, it would have amounted to awarding punishment," a bench of justices K S Radhakrishnan and J S Khehar said.

It rejected the plea of senior advocate Ram Jethmalani, appearing for the Sahara chief, that instead of keeping him in Tihar jail, he could be put under "house or office arrest" as it is difficult to raise money while being in jail.

"I submit that there is no jurisdiction to send this person to a criminal jail. Vacations are coming. Our difficulty is how do we ask anybody to go and negotiate in jail," Jethmalani said.

"My client is in Tihar jail and it makes it impossible for anybody to approach him," he said at the outset.

He also said Sahara was trying to strike a deal with international buyers and the problem is that it would be difficult to do so when Roy is in jail. "We will take note of it. That is exactly we are hearing," the bench said.

PTI