When Sahara's Subrata Roy realised that 'life in jail can be painful and lonely'

Sahara Shree, as Subrata Roy was called by his employees, was released on parole in 2016 after spending more than two years in jail.

Subrata Roy, the founder of Sahara Group, had two important revelations during the two years that he spent in jail in connection with the Sahara chit fund scam. The 75-year-old, who died due to cardiorespiratory arrest on Tuesday, figured that he had the ability to keep "stress away at all times." The second realisation was that prison life can be incredibly painful and lonely.

“My judicial custody in Tihar jail and being confined to a prison cell with just the basic amenities definitely came as a rude shock," Subrata Roy wrote in his book Life Mantras -- the first of a trilogy Thoughts from Tihar that he penned while in judicial custody in Tihar Jail.

“I, like any other human in confinement, could not contain my thoughts and at times felt an emotional outrage, ‘Why me?’, ‘What have I done wrong to deserve this?’. Thoughts such as these often raced through my mind,” he wrote.

Sahara Shree, as Roy was called by his employees, added, "Life in jail can be painful and lonely... Fortunately, God has blessed me with the ability of keeping stress away at all times.”

Speaking of a supposedly hypothetical situation, all of one's wishes for riches are granted, “the man will certainly be pleased beyond measure”, he said in the book. But at the same time there will be a condition imposed on him that he will have to live all alone with the gates of the palace locked from outside, not allowing him any contact with the outside world, not even through television or radio, he added.

“In such a case, some will take twenty days, some thirty and some forty, but soon after when the gates are opened, they will be found pulling their hair or having gone insane.... If anyone of you does not believe this he can meet me and I will prove it to him practically,” Subrata Roy wrote in the book which he insisted was not his autobiography.

“Do you know why such a person goes mad? It is because he has stopped getting food for his internal personality. There is no exchange of duties. He is neither performing his duties towards anyone nor is he sharing his emotions with anyone,” he added.

Sahara Shree was released on parole in 2016 after spending more than two years in jail. He had been suffering from a prolonged illness and was admitted to Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital & Medical Research Institute (KDAH) in Mumbai where he died on Tuesday. He is survived by his wife Swapna Roy and two sons, Sushanto Roy, and Seemanto Roy.

Read more: A sad end to Subrata Roy’s rags-to-riches-to-rags story