Supreme Court sends Amrapali directors to jail, says enough of hide & seek
New Delhi: Observing that it had enough of “their hide and seek”, the Supreme Court ordered the arrest of Amrapali promoter Anil Sharma and two other directors of the real estate company from inside the court hall on Tuesday.
A bench of Justices Arun Mishra and Uday Lalit, while ordering the arrest in connection with a number of cases filed by aggrieved homebuyers, said that they would be in the custody of the Delhi police till they complied with the court orders in letter and spirit. The bench was annoyed over the conduct of the three directors for failing to hand over the relevant documents for a forensic audit for nearly two months.
The bench had directed forensic audit to find out whether the money invested by the homebuyers were diverted for some other purposes. The bench had summoned the directors to seek information regarding the documents to be produced.
The bench directed the Delhi police and Noida police to work in tandem to seize the documents. It said that the policemen would escort the three directors to Amrapali offices and other places from where the documents are to be recovered.
Taking a serious view of their conduct, the bench also issued contempt of court notice and ordered confiscation of their passports.
The bench expressed its anguish over the conduct of the company, which has kept 42,000 homebuyers waiting for their dreams for years. It criticised Amrapali for committing a fraud and misdirecting the court and for criminal breach of buyers’ trust.
The court was also upset when the company submitted a proposal to deposit only Rs 400 crore as against Rs 4,000 crore needed for finishing the 16 pending projects. It told the company directors that they would be “rendered homeless and forced to look for homes for themselves if they acted smart in front of the court.”
The bench told them that “you are actually acting smart. When you are before the court, you have to be sincere and upright. We will sell each and every property of yours and render you homeless. You will have to look for your houses like you are making others wait for their homes." The court also observed that a big scandal is taking place in the name of real estate business. The bench had entrusted the task of finishing the pending projects to the National Buildings Construction Corporation (NBCC).
On October 3, NBCC was given the nod to float tenders for selecting the developer to prepare a detailed project report within 60 days. Meanwhile, the Noida Authority and the Greater Noida Industrial Development Authority had seized residential as well as commercial properties of Amarapali, including 5,000 flats.
The bench posted the matter for further hearing on October 24.
