Former CMD of Amrapali Group of Companies, Anil Kumar Sharma, has been denied bail by the Supreme Court, stating that he does not deserve any sympathy. The court said that Sharma cheated thousands of homebuyers, and siphoned off their hard-earned money and life savings. He has been in jail for over four years in the case.
The case
The former CMD and other directors of the firm were arrested on the direction of the top court after the forensic audit report revealed that a large amount of home buyers’ money was siphoned off by the management. They have been accused of siphoning off home buyers’ money. The apex court had directed a probe by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) into alleged money laundering by realtors, providing relief to over 42,000 home buyers of the Amrapali Group with the verdict.
The Supreme Court’s decision
The bench comprising Justices Ajay Rastogi and Bela M Trivedi refused to issue notice to the prosecuting agency on the bail plea of Sharma. The offence ran “very deep” and even the court was facing difficulties in tackling the problem. “Yours is not a case of simple cheating. See the plight of thousands of home buyers. You cannot have our sympathy. You better enjoy being in jail… This court is very aware of what you did. You created the mess and we are not able to find a way out of it. A large number of home buyers are suffering,” the bench said. Earlier, the top court had granted Sharma interim bail for a few weeks on medical grounds in the case.
Previous judgement
In its July 23, 2019 verdict, the top court had cracked down on errant builders for breaching the trust reposed by home buyers and ordered the cancellation of registration of the Amrapali Group under real estate law RERA and ousted it from prime properties in the national capital region (NCR) by nixing the land leases. Besides ED, the Economic Offence Wing (EoW) of the Delhi Police and the Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO) have also been investigating various cases lodged against the former officials of the real estate group.
Impact
The decision of the Supreme Court is expected to set a strong precedent in dealing with real estate fraud cases and give a boost to the real estate market.
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