Hi-Tech Group chairman Tirupati Panigrahi on Monday urged the Supreme Court to give him two weeks’ time more to refund the balance amount of Rs43.55 crore to the company’s customers who had deposited money for residential plots of land.
Panigrahi’s counsel proposed to the court that his client would refund the pending amount by selling off the educational institutions owned by the Hi-Tech Group in two weeks.
On March 30 this year, the apex court had allowed two weeks’ time to Panigrahi to return the amount. Panigrahi, who was asked by the court to deposit Rs63.55 crore as refund money, has deposited only Rs20 crore till date.
Notably, the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the State Crime Branch had arrested Panigrahi and his two relatives and the directors of the Hi-Tech Group on December 25, 2012 for reneging on the promise of providing residential plots to people after taking money from them in 2009.