Amrapali promoters to be kept under surveillance at Noida hotel: Supreme Court

The Supreme Court ordered the Noida Police on Thursday to take the three directors of the Amrapali group to the sealed properties where the documents of the firms will be catalogued. It issued a contempt notice against the three, including CMD and sought their reply in four weeks and ordered the cops to keep them under surveillance at a Noida hotel. They have also been barred from using their phones. 

Adhering to the Supreme Court’s direction to seal nine properties of Amrapali group in Noida, Greater Noida, Rajgir and Buxar in Bihar where documents are kept, the group on Thursday informed the court that the nine properties in the said places were sealed.

The Supreme Court on Wednesday asked the group to file an undertaking with regard to the sealing of its properties and sought the presence of two forensic auditors by by 2 pm.

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On Tuesday, the top court had sent three directors of the group to police custody, directing them to hand over all the documents of the 46 group companies to forensic auditors. 

The directors of the real estate group—Anil Kumar Sharma, Shiv Priya and Ajay Kumar—failed to provide the documents relating to the company’s accounts to forensic auditors.

The apex court’s order came on a batch of petitions filed by home buyers who are seeking possession of around 42,000 flats. The court said the conduct of the directors was in “gross violation” of its order.

“You are playing hide and seek. You are trying to mislead the court,” the bench had said.

It directed the Delhi police to seize all the documents of the Amrapali group and hand them over to forensic auditors, emphasising that not a single document of these companies should remain in custody of the group.

The top court had earlier allowed National Buildings Construction Corporation Ltd (NBCC) to float tenders for selecting the builder to complete the stalled projects of Amrapali Group and asked it to prepare a detailed project report for pending projects within 60 days.

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On September 12, the apex court had appointed NBCC to develop stalled projects of the realty firm and directed the Debts Recovery Tribunal to sell the unencumbered commercial properties of the group.

It had also directed the opening of an escrow account in the apex court in which the amount received after the sale of properties would be deposited and later disbursed to the NBCC to start construction of the pending projects in Group A and B Categories.

Besides, it directed that bank accounts, balance sheets and other documents of all the 46 Amrapali companies and Jotindra Steel, since 2008 be given to the forensic auditors.

The apex court had on September 6 identified 16 properties of Amrapali for auctioning, preferably by the NBCC, to give the PSU an initial corpus to start work on the stalled projects. It had also ordered a forensic audit of the firm and its promoters to gauge the extent of financial wrongdoings.

The group CMD had come under the top court’s scanner for declaring his assets worth at Rs 67 crore as against Rs 847 crore in his affidavit filed during the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, when he had unsuccessfully contested as a JD(U) candidate from Bihar’s Jehanabad constituency.

The NBCC had earlier given a proposal for completion of 15 residential projects of Amrapali having 46,575 flats at an estimated cost of Rs 8,500 crore in six to 36 months.

(With PTI inputs)