The Supreme Court on Wednesday ordered the attachment and sale of realty major Amrapali Group’s five-star hotel, cinema hall, malls and factories across India.
A Bench of Justice Arun Mishra and Justice U.U. Lalit also ordered attachment of four corporate offices of Amrapali Group situated in Noida and Greater Noida, and asked the Debt Recovery Tribunal (DRT), Delhi to auction them.
The Bench gave a window to the firm’s directors and their family members to return homebuyers’ money, if they have it, by December 10. It also asked the firm to explain by next week the diversion of around ₹3,000 crore of homebuyers’ money for other purposes.
The top court issued notices 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 homebuyers all along and now you want to sell the facilities created for 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.
The Supreme Court also questioned the firm for repeated non-compliance with its direction and not giving the data of business transactions for 2015-2018 period to forensic auditors.
The court was hearing a batch of petitions filed by homebuyers who are seeking possession of around 42,000 flats.
