Lucknow, May 11: Bharat Nath Shukla is a well-wisher Subrata Roy can do without, according to the Sahara group.

“He is neither a friend nor a well-wisher and as per Saharasri ji he does not even know Shri B.N. Shukla,” a statement from the Sahara India Pariwar said tonight.

Shukla has filed a habeas corpus petition in the Lucknow bench of Allahabad High Court, alleging that Roy’s wife Swapna and two others were holding him hostage.

The Sahara group chief has not been seen in public since April 1, but has reassured the world at large that he has only a “reversible mild disorder” which some rest, exercise and diet control will take care of.

Shukla’s petition, requesting the court to direct police to produce Roy, brought simmering speculation about the Sahara chief’s health to boil. The court asked him to file a supplementary affidavit tomorrow, explaining when he last saw Roy and where he suspected the Sahara group founder was being held captive.

Fifty-four-year-old Shukla’s advocate, Harishankar Jain, said: “We are ready with a separate affidavit. Now it is up to the honourable court to pass a judgment on this.” Shukla told the court he is a lecturer in Quinn’s College, Lucknow. “I am a professor of English for the last one decade. I thought it would be a terrible injustice to the man if he were under detention. So I moved court,” he said.

“I have been approached by hundreds of ordinary men with the question: ‘where is the Sahara chief?’ What I came to know shocked me. So I went to court,” he told The Telegraph.

Shukla puts Roy in the same class as Dhirubhai Ambani “for the way he single-handedly created an empire”, but the admiration has won him little acknowledgement.

The Sahara statement said: “The mischievous act of above-named Shri Shukla is only to gain cheap publicity and is further motivated by some other mala fide intention at the cost of the image of one of the biggest groups in corporate India and its respected senior members.”

“The petition is based on white lies and is an abuse and misuse of the process of law,” it added.

Shukla’s act is being seen as a “derogatory and frivolous attack” on the 9.1-lakh-strong Sahara family.

Sahara’s statement said Roy has instructed his lawyer to oppose the “bogus” petition in court and request criminal prosecution of those responsible for “maligning the reputation and goodwill” of Sahara.

Shukla, however, said: “Nobody knows where he is. So by going to court, I have given vent to the concern of hundreds of his well- wishers.”

Asked about his real motive, Shukla kept quiet for a while and said: “The only intention is the welfare of the group chief.”

Sahara also issued a statement to quell rumours about Roy’s health.

“Let us clarify that we are relying on the senior doctors’ assurance that Subrata Roy Sahara would have an absolutely disorder-free and disease-free life in the coming decades,” it said.