Indian cricketer Mahendra Singh Dhoni alike thousands of duped homebuyers knocked the doors of the Supreme Court seeking direction against Amrapali group for cheating. Dhoni specifically moved to SC seeking possession of a penthouse in an amrapali project which he booked earlier in August, 2009. Dhoni filed an application in court after receiving a notice from apex court appointed forensic auditors regarding clarification on certain aspects of the purchase.
Dhoni in reply of notice stated that Rs 20 lakh for the property was paid by him but only some work for the penthouse has been done and possession of same was not given when asked. He further clarified that he was associated with the group as ambassador and that is the reason for getting the penthouse at such lower price. However, this cannot be a ground to question the genuineness of the agreement between them.
"The embattled real estate group owes Rs 40 crore to the former cricket captain over his services to the group while acting as a brand ambassador," said lawyer of MS Dhoni. Court had directed attachment of Sharma's personal properties including a bungalow in South Delhi. It had made clear that the properties of the other two directors would also be attached. The court had asked the forensic auditors to complete their investigation on transfer of homebuyers money by Amrapali group by April 28th .
The apex court stated that if anyone has to benefit from the Amrapali case it is the affected home buyers who invested their hard earned money in flat but still not given possession. The forensic auditors, Pawan Agrawal and Ravi Bhatia, had told the court that they have found that over Rs 3,000 crore of home buyers' money was diverted by Amrapali promoters. They said over 100 shell companies were formed by the group to divert the money.
The Delhi police on 28th February arrested and interrogated 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. Home-buyers of Amrapali group are seeking possession of around 42,000 flats booked in their projects.
The court had also appointed a valuer to ascertain the exact value of 5,229 unsold flats including those booked by Amrapali for just Rs 1, Rs 11 and Rs 12 and asked the valuer to submit its report. The apex court has scheduled to hear the Amrapali matter in respect of whether the property title can be given to home-buyers or not on April, 30th .
Courtesy/By: Jayant Upadhyay
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29 Apr 2019
