Tycoon uses an office near prison to raise funds for bail of $1.6bn, write Aditya Kalra and Devidutta Tripathy IT IS hardly the $30,000 a night royal suite, but after five months in India’s biggest jail, the owner of the New York Plaza and London’s Grosvenor House is thrilled to be able to use a modest office as he tries to sell the iconic hotels.Indian tycoon Subrata Roy is putting up the two trophy properties and another luxury New York hotel for sale to raise $1.6bn for the bail bond that will get him out of Tihar, a New Delhi prison complex that houses about 12,000 inmates.About a minute’s walk from the headquarters of the prison, Roy now has an office where he can hold video conferences and receive visitors to try and sell or mortgage the hotels, say prison officials. In a small adjoining room, there are three beds for him and two associates who have also been jailed."They are happy, they can now talk to known people all day," says one Tihar official, who describes the setup to...
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