Will Subroto Roy lose his palatial Sahara City as well

Lucknow: Like several other properties of Sahara group, the Sahara City, the palatial abode of Sahara chief Subrata Roy, is also under danger of being sold.

Following the Supreme Court order to sell the Sahara properties to repay millions of the investors on Tuesday last, the 170 acre sprawling Sahara City, situated in the heart of state capital, might be included in the list of properties being sold. The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), however, had issued a notice of ‘property attachment’ to the Sahara India Pariwar in 2012.

According to officials of Lucknow Nagar Nigam, Sahara had received a license to develop housing complex with greenbelt on this land on October 22 in 1994 but neither the map was passed for 20 years nor was the housing complex developed.

In another controversy attached to Sahara, the Lucknow Development Authority (LDA) had approved the map of the project on November 16 last, after which the Sahara Housing Corporation pressurized the Municipal Corporation of Lucknow regarding lease of the land.

Now, the Sahara Housing Corporation is pressurising the officials of Lucknow Nagar Nigam to make a lease deed on the names of 15 registrants. The officials wrote a letter to the Secretary of the Urban Development Department in this regard, seeking his intervention.

What is the controversy over Sahara City land:

• The license to develop housing on 170 acre land was given to Sahara in 1994.
• In 1997, the license was cancelled which was subsequently stayed by the civil court.
• On August 31, 2012, the SEBI gave notice to attach its property.
• Despite this, the LDA board passed the map on November 2015 with conflicting versions of Chairman of LDA Mahesh Kumar Gupta and Vice Chairman Satyendra Singh Yadav.
• Now the Sahara Housing Corporation is pressurising Lucknow Nagar Nigam to furnish lease deed in the name of 15 allottees.