Proceedings against Sahara officers stayed

The district judge also summons the records of the lower court and fixes June 6 as the next date of hearing, reports Padm Kirti.

District Judge AK Rastogi on Tuesday stayed proceedings against three top Sahara officers -- Subrata Roy, Jaibrat Roy and OP Srivastava -- pending in the court of the Judicial Magistrate-I Brajendra Tripathi in Lucknow.

HT Image

The sub-ordinate court had issued bailable arrest warrants against the three while rejecting the application of the prosecution officer for withdrawing the case of forgery and misappropriation of public funds through the 'Golden Key' scheme of Sahara against them.

The district judge also summoned the records of the lower court and fixed June 6 as the next date of hearing.

Mridul Rakesh, appearing for the officers today, submitted before the court that the magistrate had not considered the merits of the investigation, "as there had been no evidence against the three" and he rejected the application of the prosecution to withdraw the case.

Earlier, Public Prosecutor MP Chaudhary (CBCID) had informed the subordinate court that the Sahara India Ltd had floated the said scheme in 1986 for financial interest of the common man. The scheme attracted a big deposit of Rs 34 crores.

The prosecutor had then submitted that the accused persons were people who had contributed to the development of the state and Subrata Roy was also made member of the UP Development council. He started his career with just Rs 2,000 and three employees and today Sahara had property of more than Rs 50,000 crore with millions of employees.