The Sahara Group has gained an ex-parte stay from the Calcutta High Court on the release of controversial book titles "Sahara: The Untold Story".

The yet-to-be-released book has been written by business journalist Tamal Bandyopadhyay and published by Jaico Books.

Passing a stay order on the release of the book, Justice IP Mukerji said, "It was submitted that this book was targeted at lowering the reputation of the plaintiffs (Sahara and Roy) in the eyes of the public, without any justification or privilege."

The judge passed the stay order on the release of the book after the Sahara counsel drew attention to certain allegedly "libelous" materials in the book.

The Sahara Group, which has been entangled in court cases due to its illegal investment schemes for the past many months, has also filed an eye-popping Rs 200-crore defamation suit against the author.

Sahara has been grappling with a Supreme Court order that had directed it to refund money that the group's two companies, viz. Sahara Housing Investment and Sahara India Real Estate, had gathered from millions of investors via unlawful investment schemes.

A spokesperson for Sahara didn't respond to a request for a comment on the issue related to the book.