New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday identified 16 properties of the Amrapali Group for auctioning, preferably by NBCC, to give the PSU an initial corpus to start work on the stalled projects. It also ordered a forensic audit of the firm and its promoters to gauge the extent of financial wrongdoings.
NBCC offered to the court that it can start construction on the 15 stalled projects with a capital of Rs 1,000 crore and the remaining amount of Rs 7,500 crore could be paid in quarterly installments of Rs 250 crore.
The top court also brought CMD of Amrapali Group Anil Sharma under its scanner for declaring his assets worth Rs 67 crore as against Rs 847 crore declared in his election affidavit filed during the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, when he had unsuccessfully contested as a JD (U) candidate from Bihar’s Jehanabad constituency.
A bench of Justices Arun Mishra and U U Lalit sought an affidavit on the list of properties of Sharma and other directors, including their family members, within four days and posted the matter for further hearing on September 12. The bench directed that forensic audit of 46 group companies of Amrapali and its directors and promoters and their spouses and children will be done in two months.
“In the circumstances, we direct forensic audit of 46 companies of Amrapali Group, including Jotindra Steel and Tubes Ltd. Let the forensic audit of assets of all directors, their family members and related companies be completed within two months and reports be submitted in the court,” the bench said.
The apex court, however, said it would later decide which agency conduct do the forensic audit, but would look at the extent of properties held by directors, diversion of funds, if any, statement of accounts of companies and their family members.
The 16 properties to be sold by auction are Amrapali Homes at Vrindavan, Amrapali Homes Projects Pvt Ltd at Indore, Amrapali Homes Project Pvt Ltd and Bhubaneshwar, Sangam Colonizer, Jaipur, Hi-tech City, Jaipur, Ultra Home Construction Pvt Ltd at Sikkim, Udaipur, Raipur and New Raipur.
Other projects to be sold by auction include unlaunched part of Amrapali Leisure Valley and Amrapali Leisure Valley Commercial in Greater Noida, unlaunched part of Amrapali Centurian Park Pvt Ltd and Amrapali Centurian Park Commercial.
The bench said the auction should preferably be done by National Buildings Construction Corporation India Ltd (NBCC) as it was a trusted name and the homebuyers have faith in it.
“Being a Public Sector Undertaking (PSU), let it not take the projects for profit motive. Over 42,000 flat buyers will be thankful to NBCC,” the bench said.
The top court also asked the Noida, Greater Noida and other concerned authorities to file their reports regarding the available space in the 16 unencumbered properties.