'Law abiding' Subrata Roy surrenders

Lucknow: Sahara India chief Subrata Roy surrendered before police here on Friday, a day after they failed to trace him to execute a Supreme Court warrant for his arrest. He was arrested and presented before the chief judicial magistrate who sent him to police custody till March 4.

Subrata Roy

Roy was scheduled to address a press conference at a hotel in New Delhi, but Sahara officials told police that he was willing to give himself up. Chief Judicial Magistrate Anand Kumar later said Roy will be kept in police custody till the apex court hearing on March 4.

The Sahara chief walked into the court around 5.30 pm, and his counsel VK Shahi said Roy was a law-abiding citizen and was not running away from the court. The chief judicial magistrate, however, left it to the discretion of police to decide whether to keep Roy in his bungalow or somewhere else.

The surrender came soon after Roy released a statement to the media, saying he was not absconding. "I am not that human being who will abscond. In fact, being a law-abiding citizen, I shall hate myself to do any such thing ever in my life," he said.

Roy had said he was absent since he wanted to be with his ailing mother, who is 92. "Last evening, I had gone out of Sahara Shaher, Lucknow, to consult with a panel of doctors over certain medical reports of my mother and then I had gone to a lawyers' house," he said.