Petition on Subrata Roy's detention dismissed

The Allahabad high court on Thursday dismissed the habeas corpus petition claimed to have been filed on behalf of the ailing Sahara group chairman Subrata Roy that he had been kept in illegal detention by his wife and some senior officers of the company.

Sahara chief kept in detention, alleges petition

Justice O P Srivastava dismissed the petition after the Sahara group counsel Arun Kumar Sinha produced a letter purported to be written by Roy stating therein that he had not been kept in illegal detention or confinement.

The court expressed displeasure over filing of such petitions.

Earlier pressing for the issuance of the writ of habeas corpus, the counsel for Bharat Nath Shukla, who had filed the petition, pleaded that since Subrata Roy was a public figure the people ought to know about his whereabouts.

Opposing his plea, Sinha produced the letter purported to have been written by Roy.

State advocate general Virendra Bhatia also opposed the petition and said it was frivolous and liable to be dismissed.

Shukla's counsel Hari Shankar Jain later said he was not satisfied with the order and would soon file an appeal against it.

The petition was filed in the court on May 9.

In the letter to his counsel Arun Kumar Sinha, Subrata Roy said: "It has been brought to my knowledge that a writ petition has been filed in my name through one Bharat Nath Shukla as my next friend and well wisher. This petition is based on white lies and is not only a surprise but also shocking to me. I do not even know Shukla. He is neither my friend nor well wisher. I have never authorised the said B N Shukla or any one else to file such frivolous petition on my behalf before the court.

"The allegations that I have been detained illegally against my wishes by my wife and colleagues are extremely painful, false and highly defamatory," he said.

"The allegations that the above mentioned persons want to capture the business of Sahara Parivar and transfer the entire amount of money to any suitable foreign country with the object to misappropriate public money are totally baseless, concocted, misleading and made with ulterior motive to defame us," the letter said.

"As a result of the petition several newspapers throughout the country have carried out false and baseless news item based on the information given by the petitioner and his counsel," it said.

"I am not in anybody's captivity. I strongly object to such petition and demand stern action against those responsible for filing such frivolous petition.

"The objective of filing the petition is to gain cheap publicity and malign my credibility," Roy said.

"At present I am not keeping well and I am under the treatment of the doctors, who have advised me complete rest," he added.