Sahara chief Subrata Roy and his Group’s two other directors Ravi Shankar Dubey and Ashok Roy Choudhary, who were sent to judicial custody till March 11 by the Supreme Court on Tuesday, had spent a sleepless night at the Tihar jail.
Struggling with mosquitoes, spiders and rodents, Roy, 65, and his company’s directors lay awake till late night talking to each other in ward Number 4 of Jail Number 3, the same ward Jail where the CWG and 2G scam accused were lodged in 2011.
CWG scam accused Lalit Bhanot and V K Verma, along with Chandolia and five more accused in the 2G scam Sanjay Chandra of Unitech, Vinod Goenka of DB Realty, Surender Pipara, Hari Nair and Gautam Doshi of Reliance ADAG were lodged in this ward in April 2011. After having his dinner at 10.30 pm in a canteen, Roy went to sleep in his 15’X10’ feet rectangular cell.
A Tihar Official told Express that Roy spent over one hour in the night by walking inside his cell, which is under close observation of Tihar security personnel.
“He has been provided a wooden cot, which is given to inmates aged above 60. Roy kept changing his sides till late night while struggling with mosquitoes,” said the official.
“We used to keep special watch on VIP inmates to avoid any unprecedented activity,” Tihar spokesperson Sunil Gupta said. He said the three have been kept in one of the 40 cells of ward Number 4 where more than 60 undertrials are already lodged, but none of them are such high profile prisoners like him.
Roy’s cell, with adjoining toilet and bathroom, will be kept open the whole day and locked at 8 pm. The trio were provided one bedsheet and four blankets to sleep.
According to Gupta, Roy and his associates were taken to Tihar Jail at 8 pm on Tuesday and was sent for medical examination in the hospital of Tihar’s Jail Number 3. “Roy is medically fit and has no any serious physical problem,” said Gupta.
Gupta said Roy woke up at 5.45 am and had his breakfast in the canteen after attending prayer session.
“Roy met with his son Seemanto and two of his relatives at 10 am. We have allowed him to meet his family or other persons twice a week,” said Gupta.
“The Sahara chief was seen reading in the library on Wednesday afternoon and watching television in the evening,” added Gupta.
The chief of Sahara group had faced the ire of the Supreme Court after he failed to appear before it on February 26 as per its orders.
Roy, who was taken into police custody from his home in Lucknow, was brought here as per orders of the apex court, which had issued a non-bailable warrant against him and had asked him to be presented at 2 pm on Tuesday. The SC later sent him to the Tihar Jail after he failed to convince judges that he is serious about refunding nearly `20,000 crore to investors in bond schemes that have been declared illegal.