There’s more trouble brewing for the Sahara Group with Spanish bank BBVA SA denying that it has extended credit to the Indian conglomerate.

Sahara had recently told the Supreme Court that it had received a line of credit worth €900 million (around ₹6,150 crore today) from BBVA.

The Supreme Court on Monday granted three more months to the Sahara Group to sell its offshore properties to raise the ₹10,000 crore required to secure the release of its chief Subrata Roy on bail. The court said it was satisfied with the company’s latest proposal and would allow it to proceed further. However, BBVA executive Jose Ramon Vizmanos told Reuters from Madrid that he had no knowledge of the credit.

“I have never worked with any Indian company... The only thing I know about Sahara is the desert in Africa,” Vizmanos told the news agency.

This is the second time a foreign bank is disassociating itself from the entire Sahara saga. Earlier, Bank of America (BofA) had refuted claims that it was the banker for a $2-billion financing package offered to the group by US-based Mirach Capital.

Mirach was supposed to extend a loan to Sahara to enable the Indian company pay off its debt to Bank of China. Sahara charged Mirach with allegations of forgery after BofA denied knowledge of any loan deal.

Now with the Spanish bank also denying claims made by Sahara in court, doubts remain on the company’s ability to raise money to secure Subrata Roy’s bail.

Roy has been in jail since March last year after the company failed to repay over ₹20,000 crore to its depositors.

The apex court had asked him to pay ₹10,000 crore to get bail, of which ₹5,000 crore should be paid in cash and the remaining in bank guarantees.

Since then, Sahara has made several failed attempts to raise the bail money. The Supreme Court on Monday granted three more months to the Sahara Group to sell its offshore properties to raise the required fund.

Related Topics