Subrata Roy, the jailed chief of India’s Sahara conglomerate, wants to leave prison immediately to perform the last rites for an aunt who died this morning.
Mr. Roy’s lawyers have urged the Supreme Court to hear his request urgently. They say Mr. Roy’s aunt lived with him for 25 years and had no children so the billionaire is needed for her cremation.
Mr. Roy, 66, who was arrested in March, was moved back to a cell in Tihar Jail after living in a makeshift prison office for two months as he tried to negotiate the sale of his luxury hotels including Grosvenor House in London and the Plaza in New York.
Mr. Roy needs to raise Rs. 10,000 crore from the hotel sales to have a chance of release on bail.
He was jailed for contempt of court amid a long-running dispute with the capital markets watchdog over Sahara’s failure to repay billions of dollars to investors in bond schemes that were declared illegal.
