New Delhi: India’s Supreme Court once again rejected a bail plea by the chief of the Sahara conglomerate, who has been held in jail for three months over his group’s failure to repay investors who bought bonds that were later ruled to be illegal.

Sahara Chairman Subrata Roy has been in a Delhi jail since March 4 after failing to appear at a contempt hearing in a long-running legal battle between his group and the Indian capital markets regulator.

The court – which said Sahara’s liability was between 330 and 350 billion rupees ($5.6-$5.9 billion) – had asked Sahara to deposit 100 billion rupees initially to secure the release of Roy on bail.

In their ruling, however, the judges allowed the group to raise funds by liquidating its bank deposits, bonds and securities worth about 25 billion rupees, according to a copy of the judgment.    Reuters