SEBI on March 15th moved the Supreme Court seeking arrest of Sahara  group promoter Subrata Roy Sahara and barring him from leaving the country after two companies of the group failed to comply with court's order to refund Rs 24,000 crore to its investors.

The market regulator mentioned the matter before a bench headed by Justice K S Radhakrishnan which agreed to hear its plea and posted the case for hearing in the first week of April.

SEBI urged the court to allow it to "take measures for arrest and detention in civil prison of promoter of Sahara Subrata Roy Sahara and the two male directors---Ashok Roy Choudhary and Ravi Shankar Dubey ---after giving reasonable opportunity of hearing."

SEBI also sought direction that their passports be deposited with the Supreme court.

Sahara group and SEBI are locked in legal dispute over the refunding of 24,000 crore by its two companies--Sahara India Real Estate Corporation (SIREC) and Sahara Housing Investment Corporation (SHIC)--to its investors.

Earlier, the last hope of Sahara group to get more time to refund Rs 24,000 crore to its investors was today dashed in the Supreme Court which dismissed its plea and pulled it up for not complying with the court's earlier order to return the money by first week of February.

A bench headed by Chief Justice Altamas Kabir, which had earlier extended the deadline to two companies of the group for refunding the money from November end to first week of February, had refused to grant more time.

SIREC and SHIC along Roy are facing contempt proceedings in the apex court before another bench which had on February 6 allowed SEBI to freeze accounts and seize properties of its two companies for defying court orders by not refunding the money to investors.