New Delhi: The Supreme Court Thursday allowed Delhi Police to arrest Amrapali Group chairman and managing director Anil Sharma and two other directors, Shiv Priya and Ajay Kumar, in connection with a cheating case registered against them. The three were arrested inside the courtroom.
The top court also directed that the personal assets of the three individuals, including Sharma’s bungalow in South Delhi, be attached.
Earlier this month, the Economic Offences Wing of Delhi Police had registered a cheating case against Amrapali Dream Valley Private Limited, Sharma and another director named Amresh Kumar.
This is the second time the top court has ordered the trio’s arrest.
Arrested before
On 9 October 2018, the Supreme Court had ordered the arrest of Sharma, Shiv Priya and Ajay Kumar when they failed to hand over documents for a court-directed forensic audit of its accounts.
The court was hearing a batch of appeals filed by over 100 homebuyers who sought a stay against the September 2017 decision of a National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) bench to admit a plea for Amrapali’s insolvency filed by Bank of Baroda.
Two days later, hours after they were released by Noida police, the apex court had remanded the three directors in police custody. Since then, the three have been deemed to be under the custody of Uttar Pradesh Police — however, they didn’t spend the time in jail but under constant “police surveillance” at Park Ascent, a four-star hotel in Sector 62 Noida.
In October 2018, the court had ordered that the three would remain under custody till the audit reports were submitted.
Also read: The rise & fall of Amrapali, from real estate giant to company struggling to pay its dues
The case so far
At the last hearing, on 14 February, the apex court bench had grilled Sharma and asked why Rs 94 crore of homebuyers’ money was in his account.
The court had then warned Sharma that he would be jailed if he failed to disclose the identity of the JP Morgan employee who bought Amrapali shares amounting to Rs 140 crore.
The Supreme Court then gave Sharma one last opportunity to return Rs 6.55 crore of homebuyers’ money that was transferred to his daughter, and directed the group to deposit Rs 200 crore it had taken as loans and advance, setting 31 March as the deadline.
In August 2018, the top court came down heavily on the embattled real estate giant for alleged diversion of funds.
The bench had also ordered the attachment of all the bank accounts and movable properties of all 40 firms under Amrapali.
On 12 September 2018, the top court had appointed an officer from the Debt Recovery Tribunal (DRT) to auction unencumbered properties of the Amrapali Group in order to raise money that would go towards the completion of its projects.
The money raised from the sale of these properties, the court ordered, would be deposited in an escrow account made available to the Centre’s construction arm National Buildings Construction Corporation (NBCC) – which was handed over the projects by the Supreme Court in August 2018.
The apex court had also directed the embattled real estate company to hand over all the documents to the auditors to enable them to conduct a forensic audit to investigate where the homebuyers’ money has been diverted.
Also read: Trio of Amrapali directors to spend time in police custody at four-star Noida hotel