The Supreme Court on Thursday allowed the Delhi Police to arrest and interrogate in custody Amrapali group CMD Anil Sharma and two directors on a complaint that home buyers of their various housing projects were cheated and duped of their funds.
The top court, which is seized of several pleas of home buyers seeking possession of around 42,000 flats booked in projects of the Amrapali group, also ordered attachment of personal properties of the CMD and directors — Shiv Priya and Ajay Kumar.
The trio, under detention of the Uttar Pradesh police and kept in a hotel at Noida since October 9 last year by the apex court for not complying with its orders, was in for a shock when a bench of justices Arun Mishra and UU Lalit ordered the arrest on a plea by Economic Offence Wing (EOW) of Delhi Police saying that it wanted quiz them in a separate cheating case.
“We had never ever stopped any agency from arresting and interrogating the directors,” the bench said, adding, “We make it clear that they (EOW) are free to arrest any or all directors”. The Bench, which had taken strong exception of diversion of monies of the home buyers by the directors and the real estate firm, directed the court-appointed forensic auditors to complete their detailed investigation on divergence of home buyers money by Amrapali group before March 22 and listed the matter for hearing on March 24.
The Bench, which had asked the real estate firm and its directors to either deposit the diverted money or be ready for consequences, Thursday ordered forthwith attachment of personal properties of the CMD and the two directors. The attached assets also included the south Delhi-based bungalow of CMD Sharma.