Tragic conclusion to Subrata Roy's "rags to riches" tale

 Tragic conclusion to Subrata Roy's "rags to riches" tale

Aloha As a high-flying business entrepreneur, Roy had a bright beginning. However, he lost his way, sank into unreasonable indulgences, and betrayed the confidence of tiny investors who were seduced by the prospect of quick profits. All of his attempts to collect money and salvage his businesses failed once the garden variety hoax was discovered.

As a high-flying business entrepreneur, Subrata Roy started out promisingly but eventually lost his path.

It seems that someone neglected to inform young Subrata Roy that being an entrepreneur, regardless of one's modest origins, does not provide perpetual legal immunity. Had he followed that one piece of advise, it may have prevented such a humiliating conclusion to his life and instead helped him make something of it. The Central Registrar of Cooperative Societies (CRCS) Sahara Refund Portal was established by the government earlier this year to return funds that their firms had wrongfully taken from more than one crore investors. That would be his final piece, sadly.

This was not an essential event to occur. Using only Rs 20,000 to launch Sahara Group in 1978, he wrote the screenplay for a tale of success by creating a multitude of industries, including media, banking, aviation, and housing. All in all, it had promise. The Sahara Group was the official sponsor of Indian cricket, operated a perfectly decent airline that it sold to Jet Airways, developed townships like Aamby Valley, owned prominent assets like the New York Plaza Hotel, and ran popular TV stations. group. Money and accolades came next, and by 2013, he was on the verge of becoming a millionaire.

Bollywood movie sets surpassed its glamor and splendor, with family weddings and overflowing treasuries spilling out into the social street. A few chosen individuals also received presents worth millions of rupees in addition to wedding invites. By now, Saharasri—as he decided to be called by his staff—was also a political powerhouse, his millions stoking the aspirations of a party and several candidates. But he had acquaintances beyond the entertainment and business industries, and he was just as well-liked in Capitol Hill as he was in Tinseltown.

For most guys, it ought to have been sufficient, given their circumstances. The issue was that he had so many other desires, such as becoming the lead in a music video. In his company operated the court of a mediaeval emperor, a guy who had no humility at all. Narratives abound of lectures lasting for hours on end with no pauses for restroom breaks and orders for everyone to wear shoes of a certain color. It was evident that financial misdeeds were handled with a severity that would have seemed absurd if it hadn't been so archaic and fitting for the traditional institution.

His con games at work were standard fare. Chit fund programs started to proliferate in India at that time. Sahara was no different. It operated in an easy manner. Slowly, they lured gullible little investors with promises of quick returns on their investments. As the results rolled in, their confidence grew and their credulity was not challenged for a while. However, this bond was short-lived—just a few months. After that, nothing else existed. Not unexpected, given that their funds were being used to reimburse more senior investors in a well-known carousel scheme in which a number of people—many, it turned out—were left stranded.

Roy turned to another well-liked move of the 1990s, the initial public offering (IPO), when the uproar started. Sadly, this put him in the sights of SEBI, the market regulator, and from then on his luck worse as he was charged with embezzling more than Rs 24,000 crore from three crore Indians. The group's housing company's botched bond issue turned out to be the last straw as it prevented them from obtaining money from the public or the stock markets in any way. Roy thereafter spent the rest of his life interacting with the authorities while inside; he denied any wrongdoing.

There will always be a feeling of what could have been in his death at the age of 75, had his goals stayed within reasonable bounds.

Author of "Cryptostorm: How India Became Ground Zero, which is of a Financial Revolution," Sandeep Khanna is a prominent journalist. Opinions are subjective and may not always reflect the position of this publication.