NEW DELHI: In a move likely to rattle defaulting realtors, the Supreme Court on Tuesday ordered police to take the
CMD and two directors of
Amrapali Group into detention straight from court to ensure that documents of 46 group companies are seized for forensic audit over complaints of cheating and diversion of funds.
A bench of Justices Arun Mishra and Uday Umesh Lalit was livid with Amrapali CMD
Anil Kumar Sharma and directors Shiv Priya and Ajay Kumar after being informed by court-appointed forensic auditors Ravi Bhatia and Pawan Aggarwal that the group had failed to provide financial documents as directed by the court, first on September 12 and then again on September 26.
The court stopped short of ordering their arrest, but said the top executives will remain in police detention till the required documents are handed over. “Don’t play hide and seek with the court. You are playing with the dignity of the Supreme Court,” the bench warned while rejecting Amrapali group counsel Gaurav Bhatia’s request for one last chance to comply with the orders.
Realty bites
A forensic audit involves evaluation of a firm's financial information as evidence in court and is often associated with probes into frauds and swindles.
The group has not even statutorily audited accounts since 2015. The court ordered that all internally audited account documents of 46 companies since 2015 be handed over for forensic audit.“We had directed on September 26 for handing over of all financial documents within 24 hours. We will not allow you to play games with the court. This nonsense will not be tolerated even for an hour,” the bench said and asked
Delhi Police and UP police to coordinate in seizing all financial documents and hand them to the auditors. It posted the matter for further hearing on October 24.
The bench said: “...Not a single paper will remain with the auditors and directors of the Amrapali group of companies for the aforesaid period. All documents to be handed over to forensic auditors by police. In case the aforesaid persons fail to hand over the documents, they shall remain in the custody of police till such time the documents are handed over.” The court noted that the Amrapali officials violated its order and were liable to be proceeded for contempt of court. “...It is not only deliberate non-compliance of the order but effort is being made to fritter away the documents in utter violation of the order. No justification could be pointed out by the counsel appearing on behalf of the Amrapali group of Companies for not complying with the orders passed by this court,” it said.
Appearing for home buyers, advocate M L Lahoty said the group had also not complied with the SC order to Amrapali to submit the documents required by Debt Recovery Tribunal despite its October 4 order.
The bench said prima facie the CMD and two directors have violated the court orders and thwarted course of justice and issued them notice asking why contempt proceedings be not initiated against them.
Widening its net to include other directors, the bench ordered that eight directors — Shiv Priya, Ajay Kumar, Subhash Chandra Kumar, Amresh Kumar, Sunil Kumar,
Sudhir Kumar Chaudhary, Anil Kumar Sharma and Vinay Vishal — and three ex-directors, Rakesh Mahajan, Iftikhar Ahmed and Pallavi Mishra, as well as statutory auditors shall not leave the country. “Passports of all the directors shall be surrendered. This direction is not applicable to nominee directors,” it said.