The Delhi Police, probing a case of cheating against realty major Amrapali, got its hands full on Thursday with the Supreme Court giving the police a free hand to arrest and interrogate the group's top bosses. The court asked the police to unearth the entire gamut of fraud played by the company on innocent homebuyers whose hard-earned money was siphoned off to shell firms situated inside and outside the country.
The developments in the case occurred on Thursday when the apex court was hearing a batch of petitions filed by homebuyers seeking refund of their money as delivery of their constructed flats was long overdue.
As the court finished hearing its own-appointed forensic auditors on the maze of corruption and money laundering done by Amrapali bosses, the bench, of Justices Arun Mishra and UU Lalit, took up an application moved by Delhi Police seeking arrest/custody of Chairman-Managing Director Anil Kumar Sharma along with Directors Ajay Kumar and Shiv Priya. Investigation by Delhi Police's Economic Offences Wing (EOW) on a 2016 case, lodged by one Moon Buildtech, showed that the group and its five top officials defrauded the complainant company of over Rs 6 crore.
In this connection, police sought custody of the CMD and Directors of Amrapali but could not do so owing to an October 11, 2018 direction by the top court placing Anil Sharma, Ajay Kumar and Shiv Priya under detention of Uttar Pradesh Police in a hotel.
The bench gave full relief to the police by allowing its application and said, "We make it clear that the Delhi Police is free to arrest/take into custody any or all the other Directors of Amrapali group of companies. Any order passed by this Court in this case shall not come in their way to do so."
The court further directed the police to investigate the entire gamut of the scenario of the various projects and investigate the entire matter. "Prima facie, we find that the case requires serious investigation in the facts projected by the Directors, CFO and the statutory auditors... indicating the operational methods of diversion of funds and creation of companies," said the bench, allowing the police to interrogate even the chief financial officer and auditors of the company.
In a further setback, the court directed the personal properties of CMD and rest of the Directors of the company to be attached forthwith. This included a posh bungalow of CMD at Maharani Bagh. The auditors informed the court that some 200 individuals had not cooperated with investigations. The court directed the said persons to make them available over the next week. Meanwhile, the auditors will prepare their final report by March 22, following which the court will take up the contempt petitions against the Amrapali bosses on March 26.