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New Delhi: A Delhi court on Monday extended the judicial custody of RK Arora, chairman and promoter of a real estate company, by two weeks. Supertech GroupIn money laundering case. Special Judge Devendra Kumar Jangala extended the custody of the accused till August 7 on an application Enforcement Directorate (Ed).
The accused was produced before the court on expiry of his previous custody and the ED said that his release may hamper the ongoing investigation.
A Delhi court on Saturday rejected the bail plea of the accused in the case.
Arora was arrested on June 27 under criminal sections Prevention of Money Laundering Act ,PMLA) after three rounds of questioning.
ED’s special public prosecutor NK Matta, accompanied by advocate Mohd Faizan Khan, had told the court that the money laundering case against the Supertech group, its directors and promoters stems from several FIRs registered by the police in Delhi, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh.
The ED is probing the case relating to 26 FIRs registered by the Economic Offenses Wing (EOW) of Delhi, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh police against Supertech Ltd and its group companies for alleged criminal conspiracy, cheating, criminal breach of trust and forgery.
He has been accused of duping at least 670 home buyers to the tune of Rs 164 crore.
According to the ED, the company and its directors entered into a “criminal conspiracy” to cheat people by collecting advance money from prospective home buyers against flats booked in their real estate projects.
The agency said the company did not comply with the agreed obligation of providing possession of the flats in time and “cheated” the general public.
The ED claimed that its probe revealed that Supertech Ltd and other group companies had collected money from home buyers.
The ED said the company also took project-specific term loans from banks and financial institutions for construction of housing projects.
However, these funds were “misappropriated and used to purchase land in the name of other group companies, which were pledged as collateral to borrow funds from banks and financial institutions.”
The agency said the Supertech group has also defaulted on payments to banks and financial institutions and currently such loans worth around Rs 1,500 crore have become non-performing assets (NPAs).
Supertech Limited, which was established in 1988, has so far delivered around 80,000 apartments, primarily Delhi-NCR Area. The company is currently developing around 25 projects in the National Capital Region (NCR). It is yet to give possession to more than 20,000 customers.
The company has been reeling under a crisis since last year, when in August, its nearly 100-metre-tall twin towers – Apex and Sayen – located on the Noida Expressway were demolished after a Supreme Court order found that they were constructed in violation of norms within the Emerald Court complex.
Over 3,700 kg of explosives were used to demolish both the towers.
Arora had then said that the company suffered a loss of around Rs 500 crore, including construction and interest costs, due to the demolition.
The company suffered another setback in March last year when the Delhi bench of the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) ordered initiation of insolvency proceedings against Supertech Ltd on a plea filed by Union Bank of India for non-payment of dues of about Rs 432 crore.
Supertech challenged the order before the NCLAT.
In June last year, the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) had ordered initiation of insolvency proceedings in only one housing project of Supertech Ltd and not the entire company.
The NCLAT had also directed the formation of a committee of creditors for the Eco Village 2 project located in Greater Noida (West).
The company has recently received permission from the Supreme Court to arrange around Rs 1,600 crore from institutional investors to complete 18 ongoing housing projects in Delhi-NCR under the parent firm Supertech Ltd.
Apart from these 18, there are a few other housing projects being executed by various companies in the Supertech group.
