Have attached properties worth Rs 4.79 cr of ex-Amrapali director: ED to SC

The Enforcement Directorate on Monday told the Supreme Court that it has attached properties worth Rs 4.79 crore of a former director of Amrapali Group and is probing his transactions of diversion of home buyers money made through shell companies.

A bench of Justices UU Lalit and Ajay Rastogi was told by Additional Solicitor General Sanjay Jain, appearing for ED, that the attached properties were proceeds of crime of Prem Mishra, who was a director in the reality firm and he raised the amount by diverting home buyers money from Amrapali Group with the help of fake invoices, bills and sham transactions.

The court appointed forensic auditor Pawan Kumar Aggrawal disputed the claims of ED and said that Rs 10.26 crore was outstanding against Prem Mishra and it is recorded in the forensic audit and the 2019 judgement of the court.

The top court asked Jain to furnish a copy of the ED's status report and the attachment order of properties of Mishra to the forensic auditor, so that he could collate the details and submit a report later this week.

The bench directed that an official concerned of ED will also render assistance to Aggrawal on collating the relevant details with regard to Mishra.

Senior advocate Vikas Singh, appearing for Mishra, said that if the proceedings are to go before the court then he should not be asked to appear before the enforcement directorate.

Jain objected to the submission saying that his PMLA proceedings will continue as a case has been registered.

Meanwhile, NOIDA authority also moved the top court seeking recall of June 10, last year order by which the court had capped the interest at 8 per cent to be charged by authority on the outstanding dues of land against the exorbitant 15 to 23 per cent.

The hearing remained inconclusive and would continue on September 20.

On September 3, the top court had warned the flat buyers of Amrapali Group who are not clearing their dues as per the payment plan to not be in any kind of delusion as their units can be cancelled and will be considered as unsold inventory.

It has observed that the home buyers are under the impression that the court is facilitating construction of their stalled flats and managing funds and they are at a convenience to pay their dues, whenever they like.

On August 13, the top court had said that there are two categories of home buyers--first category is of 9,538 home buyers who have neither registered so far in the Customer Data maintained by the office of the Receiver, nor have made any payments, subsequent to the judgment of the Court in July-2019.

It had noted, in its order, that there is a second category of 6,210 home buyers, who have registered themselves in the Customer Data but have not made any payment since the judgment of this court in July 2019.

The NBCC had earlier told the top court that at present, 10 projects in Noida and 12 projects in Greater Noida are under execution involving 45,957 units with sanctioned project cost of Rs 8025.78 Crores.

On August 14, the top court had initiated a process to cancel bookings of over 9,538 Amrapali project flats, which are unclaimed or booked in the name of fictitious people or are benami property, to fund stalled projects.

The apex court in its July 23, 2019 verdict had cracked the whip on errant builders for breaching the trust reposed by home buyers and ordered the cancellation of the registration of the Amrapali Group under real estate law RERA, and ousted it from prime properties in the NCR by nixing the land leases.

Amrapali Group directors Anil Kumar Sharma, Shiv Priya and Ajay Kumar are behind bars on the top court's order.