The founder and managing worker of the $10.87 billion Sahara group, Subrata Roy, says he was away from public life for three months because of blood pressure surges and that he is otherwise keeping good health.

In a freewheeling interview to two leading dailies published Friday, the 58-year-old Roy also sought to end speculation over a succession struggle within the group, adding that the empire would be handled by a trust he is forming.

Roy, The Times of India and The Economic Times said, also produced a medical certificate that reportedly declares him to be free of any disease.

"I have got an HIV test done and I do not have AIDS," the newspapers quoted the tycoon - who has been presiding over a group with interest that spans para-banking and aviation to broadcasting and real estate - as saying.

For the past three months, there has been intense speculation in the media and the corporate world over the health of the flamboyant business tycoon who claims to have built his $10.87-billion business empire in just 27 years.

This had even led to a habeas corpus petition in the Allahabad High Court, claiming some family members and officials had kept Roy in detention to siphon off his money. The petition was summarily dismissed last month.

In the interview, Roy spoke about a range of issues - from his association with Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav, businessman-turned-politician Amar Singh and the Ambani family to his own succession plans for the group.

He said he had spoken to the Ambani brothers - Mukesh and Anil - to end their bitter battle over the ownership and control of the Reliance group. "I am telling Anil and Mukesh to settle things fast," he was quoted as saying.

In a different context, he also said Sahara was India's largest first-generation group today - a distinction that was earlier held by Reliance founder Dhirubhai Ambani, whom Roy says he admired.

Roy - whose photos doing a workout, practising yoga and playing cricket were published by the two papers - also dismissed talk that a proposed succession plan would see his two sons, Sushanto and Seemanto, taking over the group.

"Sahara is a family, it can't be split and given away to two children or to anyone like that. Sahara will not have any owners and will be run by a trust which will make it impossible to split the group in 200 years."

The founder chairman also dismissed talks that he was facing problems with the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government at the centre because of his association with Yadav and Amar Singh who share a strained relationship with Congress party.

"Not one bit," he is said to have replied when queried about whether the change of government at the centre had affected his business.

He said the central bank had restricted the amount of money that Sahara's para-banking business could invest in other ventures to 10 percent.

Roy, nevertheless, added that the UPA government was not responsible for that since the process had been started by the previous National Democratic Alliance regime, led by the Bharatiya Janata Party.