SC orders attachment of Amrapali's assets
New Delhi: Continuing its crackdown on the embattled Amrapali Group, the Supreme Court on Wednesday ordered attachment and sale of the realty firm's five-star hotel, cinema hall, malls and factories across India, calling it "a worst kind of cheater" and "a perfect liar" for not complying with the court's direction.
The top court also ordered attachment of four swanky corporate offices of Amrapali Group situated in Noida and Greater Noida and asked the Debt Recovery Tribunal (DRT), Delhi to auction them.
The top court gave a window to the firm's directors and their family members to return home-buyers' money, if they have it, by December 10.
It asked the firm to explain by next week the diversion of around Rs 3,000 crore of home-buyers money for other purposes.
A bench of Justices Arun Mishra and U U Lalit issued a notice to the Amrapali Group CMD Anil Sharma and its directors, Chief Financial officer and statutory auditor Anil Mittal, asking them why a criminal case for breach of trust should not be lodged against them.
"You (Amrapali Group) are the worst kind of cheater in the world. You have cheated the home buyers all along, and now you want to sell the facilities created for them. The facility area created for the home buyers is not a charity you have done to them," the bench said after it was told that the real estate firm wants to sell a nursery school, an open space and a nursing home to raise funds.
It gave 24-hours to the Amrapali Group to hand over the raw data files of the business transactions of the company including the vouchers, receipt and the required authorisation for the period of 2015-18, to the forensic auditors appointed by the court.
"You are a perfect liar. You are a first-degree liar. You have not given specific information what we have asked for in our earlier orders. We are not satisfied with your affidavit, and you have only tried to manipulate the things. Despite our nine orders, you have not given specific information about business transactions for period 2015-18," the bench said.
