The Supreme Court on Monday pulled up Sahara Group and its chief Subrata Roy for not responding to the contempt plea filed against them by Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI).

SC also slammed the Sahara Group for approaching Allahabad HC and other forum in a case pertaining to refund of Rs 24,000 crore to its investors.

“You are manipulating courts,” SC said to Sahara.

Meanwhile, the apex court stated that SEBI is to deposit money of untraced investors of Sahara with the Centre.

As per Sebi, Sahara India Real Estate Corp Ltd (SIRECL) and Sahara Housing Investment Corp Ltd (SHICL) raised Rs 6,380 crore and Rs 19,400 crore respectively from bond holders and “various illegalities” were committed in raising these funds.

A bench comprising by Justices K S Radhakrishnan and J S Khehar slammed the group and its chief for not filing response on SEBI’s contempt plea against them and also issued notice to them on the market regulator’s plea to detain Roy and the two male directors – Ashok Roy Choudhary and Ravi Shankar Dubey to get investors’ money back from them.

The bench, which at one time asked Roy’s counsel to make statement that he will not leave the country or it will pass directions, however refrained from doing so and granted one week time to him and his two companies to file their response.

The bench also expressed its anguish when the SEBI informed that Sahara India has filed a petition in Allahabad High Court after the apex court had passed the order for attaching the properties of the group’s two companies if they failed to deposit Rs 24000 with the market regulator.