Hide and seek ends: 9 properties sealed, says Amrapali group to SC

New Delhi: The Amrapali group Thursday informed the Supreme Court that its nine properties in Noida, Greater Noida, Rajgir and Buxar in Bihar have been sealed in compliance with the court's order.

A bench of Justices U U Lalit and D Y Chandrachud asked the Amrapali group to file an undertaking with regard to sealing of its properties by 2 pm today.

The bench also sought presence of two forensic auditors Ravi Bhatia and Pawan Kumar Aggarwal at 2 pm to ascertain their satisfaction with regard to the documents to be audited. The bench will hear the matter at 2 pm today.

The apex court had on Wednesday ordered the sealing of nine properties of the embattled real estate company after its three directors, who are in police custody, said the documents related to the group's 46 firms were stored there. The three directors had moved an application before the court stating that they were willing to hand over all documents but the police was unaware about which one needed to be seized.

The directors of the group -- Anil Kumar Sharma, Shiv Priya and Ajay Kumar -- were taken into police custody on October 9 and the firm was castigated for playing "hide and seek" with the court by not complying with its orders to hand over all documents to forensic auditors.

These directors had told the bench that documents related to Amrapali's 46 group companies were kept in seven locations at Noida and Greater Noida and two premises -- Rajgir and Buxar districts in Bihar. The bench had then directed that after the sealing of these nine premises, the keys be handed over to the registrar of the apex court. The court is seized of a batch of petitions filed by home buyers who are seeking possession of around 42,000 flats booked in projects of the Amrapali group.