File photo of Subrata Roy
The Lucknow police is looking for Sahara chief Subrata Roy, who is missing, but has sent an apology to the Supreme Court for not appearing before it this week and a request that it recall an arrest warrant against him.
At 3 pm on Thursday, a team of six cops landed at Mr Roy's sprawling Lucknow home, spread over several acres, to comply, they said, with the Supreme Court's order to arrest and produce him in court by 2 pm on March 4.
They emerged after about two hours of searching the premises to say he had not been found. They did find his 92-year-old mother at home, the cops said, surrounded by a team of doctors, but Mr Roy was not there.
In his petition, Mr Roy, 65, has pleaded that he could not appear in court because his mother, who he is "emotionally attached" to, is seriously ill. He offered an "unconditional apology" requesting the court to "pardon his error of judgement" and allow him to be with his mother in what he called "her last moments."
The cops are expected to search other locations in Lucknow for Mr Roy today.
The Supreme Court had issued the arrest warrant on Wednesday after Mr Roy failed to appear before it; a day earlier it had rejected Mr Roy's plea for exemption from personal appearance, saying he had enjoyed that reprieve for two years. Mr Roy has repeatedly cited his mother's illness as a reason for not appearing in court.
The court is hearing a case in which market regulator Sebi has accused Mr Roy and three other Sahara directors of not refunding Rs 19000 crores to millions of investors in two Sahara companies. Sebi alleges that the funds were raised illegally. In August 2012, the Supreme Court ordered Sahara to refund the money with interest.
Sahara claims that it deposited nearly Rs. 5,000 crore with Sebi and refunded the rest of the money to investors, a claim the regulator rejects.
The top court had asked Sahara to deposit papers of property worth Rs 20,000 crore with the regulator as a guarantee towards payment of investors' money. Sahara has been restrained from selling any property.