India: Apex court gives Sahara three months to table final plan to raise funds

India's apex court has afforded troubled financial services conglomerate Sahara another three months to table a final proposal to raise funds against its assets, key to pay jailed founder Subrata Roy's $1.6bn (£1.07bn, €1.47bn) bail money.

The Supreme Court of India, on 23 March, allowed Sahara to sell a part of its high-end Aamby Valley township outside Mumbai, which houses villas and a golf course, to raise funds.

Last week, the top court gave the Sahara group, whose interests range from property to a Formula One (F1) motor racing team, a final chance to raise funds in order to bail out Roy.

Sahara India Pariwar is in the market to sell London's Grosvenor House hotel after it defaulted on Bank of China loans for the London property.

Sahara has made several failed attempts to raise $1.6bn in bail money, including Roy's attempts to sell the London hotel and two other properties in New York – the Plaza and Dream Downtown hotels – from a makeshift office inside the Delhi prison.

Roy, 66, has been held at New Delhi's Tihar jail for over a year in a protracted dispute over refunding billions of dollars to Indians who had invested in outlawed bonds.

Earlier, two group companies - Sahara Housing and Sahara Real Estate - failed to comply with the apex court's order to refund $3.9bn to 30 million investors.