The Air Sahara magnate, Subrata Roy, has apparently fallen ill and disappeared from public view:
One [rumor] says that an entire floor of a super deluxe hotel was recently bought by Sahara in Mumbai (Bombay) and converted into a make shift hospital… the blood pressure of the Sahara boss has fluctuated frequently… He said the Sahara chief was now leading a much more disciplined and orderly life – even doing yoga and regular exercises…
Roy has Mughal tendencies:
He has a fleet of private jets and helicopters and one of his mansions is modelled on the White House. Another residence – located in a private city he has built at the cost of tens of millions of dollars – is a replica of Buckingham Palace.
He commands a swarm of worker bees which is almost as large as the standing army of the United States and almost three times as large as IBM:
… [with] 900,000 employees – Sahara is India’s biggest private sector employer…
The rumor mill has reached Jacksonesque proportions with a petition of habeas corpus filed:
A habeas corpus petition, claiming that Sahara group Chairman Subrata Roy had been kept in ‘illegal detention’ by his wife and some other senior officers of the company, was filed with the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad high court on Monday.
Other rumors:
According to Sahara group insiders, Roy was resting in the Sahara group’s Amby Valley – a 10,000-acre resort-style getaway – a few hours drive from Mumbai.
Maybe Roy’s chillin’ with Amby Valley fans Michael Douglas and Christina Aguilera. Billionaire disappears into private valley — could it be Galt’s Gulch?
I have heard a rumour that Sahara is largely financed by politicans. That is how it became so big and powerful so fast. I dont know if the rumour is true but it does explain a lot.
Sahara’s growth makes very little sense. There is no solid foundation but suddenly tv channels, aviation businesses and real estate businesses started by Sahara have popped up. At all times – Sahara is talked of as this very successful business house… never heard of a business where they started without already being successful?! There is no history that would explain Sahara’s start from small to big. Such histories can be found for nearly all other big business families in India.
btw – the first time Sahara made news was when it planned a massive voting fraud. Several thousand employees were deputed to go to Lucknow a day before the Lok Sabha election to cast 50,000 votes in favor of Raj Babbar who was a lost cause fighting against Atal Behari Vajpayee. This was caught in time and did not happen.
Interestingly enough Vajpayee was seen in public functions with Subrata Roy and other Sahara cronies as a friend when he was PM.
http://www.saharaindiapariwar.com – List of their philosophies starts with this gem:
Emotion before economics.
!!
Well from what I heard it was a way for politicans to turn their black money into white money. All the stuff they steal from various places gets put into a legitimate business like Sahara as investmenst and they get returns on it. Like what the mafia does. The only good thing in this is that atleast the money stolen by the politicians goes back into the Indian economy as opposed to some foreign bank account. In a bizzare way it acctually services the economy.
We live in interesting times.
From what I understand, Sahara started out as a chit fund company. I am not sure exactly how that works but its some sort of a pyramid or ponzi scheme, that is run on the backs of the rural poor in UP and Bihar. In the last couple of months the RBI passed some sort of Rule that makes all of Saharas Saving Yojanas(Their legally run chit funds) illegal.
Maye be he is bankrupt or even dead. I also heard that his wife is having some kind of affair?
I have heard that Subrata Roy is already dead. He had AIDS that ultimately took his life. This is being hidden from the media to prevent a Birla-Lodha kind of a scandal.
I have also heard the same as Walia, that Sahara’s Subrata Roy was HIV Positive and has recently passed away. Due to the faith of shareholders / to keep stock-prices intact they are keeping this all hush-hush until they can tie up all loose ends. RIP