The Supreme Court on Thursday issued contempt notices to three directors of real estate major Amrapali Group for defying the court’s orders, PTI reported.
A bench of Justices UU Lalit and DY Chandrachud sought their reply within four weeks and ordered them to present themselves at a police station in Noida by 8 am on Friday. Anil Kumar Sharma, Shiv Priya and Ajay Kumar will remain under police surveillance for 15 more days, the court said.
The court ordered the Noida Police to take them to nine recently-sealed properties in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, where the documents of the company’s 46 subsidiaries will be catalogued. For the next 15 days, the court told the police to take them to the properties in the day, and to a hotel after 6 pm, where they will be confined without their cellphones.
The court also directed forensic auditors Ravi Bhatia and Pawan Kumar Aggarwal to complete the process of auditing the balance sheet of the 46 subsidiaries with 10 weeks.
Earlier in the day, the Amrapali Group told the court that it had sealed nine properties in Noida and Greater Noida in Uttar Pradesh, and Rajgir and Buxar in Bihar. On Wednesday, the Supreme Court had directed authorities to seal the properties, where documents related to the company’s 46 subsidiaries are kept.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday sent to police custody three directors of the group, who told the bench that all documents and account books relating to the 46 group companies were kept at the nine properties.
The court had sent Anil Kumar Sharma, Shiv Priya and Ajay Kumar to police custody for failing to provide the documents to the forensic auditors twice – on September 12 and September 26. The court clarified that it was not arresting them and said they would remain in custody only till the documents are handed over.
At least 55 flat buyers have filed petitions seeking directions to quash the insolvency proceedings against Amrapali Group. The petitioners claim the provisions of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016, violates their fundamental rights as the code prioritises lending institutions.
In August, the court had warned the company’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.
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