The Supreme Court on Tuesday sent three directors of real estate company Amrapali Group to police custody for failing to provide all the documents of 46 subsidiaries to forensic auditors, reported PTI. Anil Kumar Sharma, Shiv Priya and Ajay Kumar will remain in custody until the documents are handed over.
The court is hearing petitions filed by home-buyers who want insolvency proceedings against the Amrapali Group quashed. They claim that the provisions of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016, violates their fundamental rights as the code prioritises lending institutions.
Justices Arun Mishra and UU Lalit said the conduct of the directors was in “gross violation” of its order. “You are playing hide and seek,” they said. “You are trying to mislead the court.” The Supreme Court also ordered the Delhi Police to seize all documents and account books of the companies and hand them over to the forensic auditors.
In August, the court had warned the firm’s managing directors and directors that “each and every property” of theirs would be sold to recover the cost of construction of its pending projects. The court made this statement after the company said it was not in a position to complete the projects and hand over flats to more than 42,000 home-buyers in time.
The group had earlier submitted a proposal to the Supreme Court to sell commercial properties worth Rs 400 crore against the Rs 4,000 crore likely to be incurred on completing the pending projects.
Meanwhile, Mozambique has terminated a contract it had signed with the company three years ago to build 400 homes in Tete province. It accused the builders of defrauding it of $13.92 million (Rs 97 crore) by presenting two guarantees from an Italian bank that did not exist.
Buy an annual Scroll Membership to support independent journalism and get special benefits.
Our journalism is for everyone. But you can get special privileges by buying an annual Scroll Membership. Sign up today!