In the Hi-Tech land fraud case, Hi-Tech Group chairman Tirupati Panigrahi has deposited Rs9 crore out of the remaining Rs25.5 crore to be refunded to those who have paid money but not received the promised plots.
He has deposited Rs9 crore as the third instalment in the Supreme Court, which had asked him to deposit the money. The next hearing of the case is on December 1.
Earlier, Panigrahi had deposited Rs18 crore on June 6 this year as the second instalment of the Rs63.5 crore that the apex court had asked him to deposit for refund to the investors.
In an appeal on behalf of Panigrahi, his counsel well-known lawyer Kapil Sibal had pleaded with the court to allow him four months’ time to deposit the pending amount of Rs 25.5 crore by selling off the educational institutions owned by him.
On March 30 this year, the court had allowed two weeks’ time to Panigrahi to deposit Rs63.55 crore.
It may be mentioned that the Economic Offences Wing (EoW) of the State Crime Branch had arrested Tirupati Panigrahi and his two relatives and directors of the Hi-Tech Group Tirupati Choudhury and Madhusudan Panigrahi on December 25, 2012 for reneging on the promise of providing residential plots to people after taking money from them in 2009.
The probe by the EOW had revealed that the Hi-tech Group owed more than Rs315.96 crore to the investors. The group had received money from 17,181 investors, of whom 16,901 investors are yet to get land.
The Supreme Court had granted bail to Tirupati Panigrahi in February last year with a condition to refund Rs63.55 crore to the investors.
The Hi-Tech Group owns real estate firms, two private medical colleges and several professional educational institutes at different places of Odisha.