Amrapali flats booked for meagre sum of Re 1 per sq ft: Auditors to SC

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Skeletons kept tumbling out of the closet in the forensic audit of embattled Amrapali Group, as court-appointed auditors on Wednesday told the Supreme Court that posh flats were booked on sums as low as Re 1, Rs 5 and Rs 11 per sq ft in the name of over 500 people.

The audit found that 23 companies were floated in the name of office boys, peons and drivers and these firms were part of Amrapali consortium and were made fronts to divert home buyers' money.

The two forensic auditors told the apex court that they have issued notices to 655 people on whose names 'benami' flats were booked but no one was found in 122 such locations.

The interim report of forensic auditors which was submitted before a bench of justices Arun Mishra and U U Lalit said that Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Chander Wadhwa had transferred Rs 4.75 crore to "unidentified persons" just three days before he deposed before the top court on October 26, last year.

"He (Wadhwa) had in his account Rs 12 crore till March 2018. Then he had transferred Rs 1 crore in the name of his wife. Just three days before he appeared in the court for the first time on October 26, 2018, he had transferred Rs 4.75 crore to some unidentified persons," forensic auditor Pawan Kumar Agarwal told the bench.

The submission of Agarwal irked the bench which pulled up Wadhwa who was present in the court and warned him of contempt action.

"You (Wadhwa) are putting spoke in the wheels of justice. You very well knew that questions will be asked by the court and hence you transferred the money. We want the entire tranche of money back in seven days time. You had no business to transfer the money on October 23, 2018. You have obstructed the course of justice and we may haul you up for contempt of court," the bench said.

The court also asked the forensic auditors to produce the orders of Income Tax department which during its search and seizure conducted in 2013-14 had recovered Rs 200 crore bogus bills and vouchers besides Rs one crore from Amrapali Group CMD Anil Kumar Sharma and Rs one crore from director Shiv Priya.

Another forensic auditor Ravi Bhatia told the court that Amrapali Group had appealed against the IT order which had deleted the paragraph which mentioned of Rs 200 bogus bills and vouchers raised on account of purchase of raw materials.

"You submit us both the orders of IT department and the appellate authority. We would like to see them," the bench said.

The top court also brought under its scanner multi-national firm JP Morgan Real Estate fund, which had invested Rs 85 crore in Amrapali Zodiac in 2010 by purchasing its share and later selling those shares to the sister companies of reality firm.

The forensic auditors pointed out that shares purchased and agreement of JP Morgan Real Estate fund and Amrapali Group were in violation of the provisions of law.