Sahara wants Plaza, Dream Hotel left alone in $350M suit

Indian company claims New York court has no jurisdiction over the properties

From left: Plaza Hotel and Dream Downtown Hotel
From left: Plaza Hotel and Dream Downtown Hotel

Sahara India Pariwar, owner of The Plaza Hotel and the Dream Downtown Hotel, asked a New York court not to attach the properties in a lawsuit by a company that claims it was cut out of a deal to acquire them.

JTS Trading sued Sahara and Trinity White City Ventures Limited in June, claiming that it had a deal for a joint venture with Trinity to acquire the hotels that it was abruptly excluded from when Trinity decided to partner with Sahara. JTS is seeking $350 million in damages, the Economic Times reported.

In response to a plea by JTS to attach the prized hotels to the suit, Sahara is now asking a New York court to declare that the properties fall outside of its jurisdiction.

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“Even if the Court were to ignore the obvious jurisdictional deficiency, plaintiff would not be entitled to the relief it seeks because it is seeking to attach the property of non-parties that are not implicated by the allegations in the complaint,” Sahara said in a filing.

Sahara claims that it is being unfairly dragged into a private dispute between JTS and Trinity.

Meanwhile, Sahara is attempting to leverage its stake in the hotels to bail its founder, Subrata Roy, out of Indian prison, where he is being held on $1.6 billion bail. [Economic Times] — Tess Hofmann