New Delhi, The Supreme Court on Friday directed Amrapali group of companies to furnish details of all the bank accounts of its 46 companies, including 23 others mentioned by the forensic auditors in their interim report.
Allowing time till October 30, the bench of Justice Arun Mishra and Justice Uday Umesh Lalit told the CMD and two directors of the realty major that any failure to comply with its order would land them at an “appropriate place” — suggesting jail.
Besides the details of the bank accounts of 46 companies, the court directed that all the computers and laptops having details of transactions since 2008 would be handed over to the forensic auditors.
The court also sought details on the share holdings that were acquired from the money paid by home buyers.
“We are doing all this because you have not done your job. If you had done it, the situation would not have arisen”, Justice Lalit said as the court directed next hearing on October 31 to ascertain the compliance of its orders.
The court was unmoved as senior counsel Geeta Luthra urged the court to allow CMD Anil Kumar Sharma and two other directors, Shiv Priya and Ajay Kumar, to visit their homes for two hours in a day to be with their families.
The court declined the plea saying that it had no sympathy for them as they have not complied with its order.
“We don’t have any sympathy with you. You have not complied with our orders”, Justice Mishra said. “Unless we are told by the forensic auditors (about compliance), we are not going to relax our order.”
The court told forensic auditor Pawan Agrawal that the bank statement of 46 companies could be the starting point for undertaking the auditing of the companies accounts.
The court also told the former CFO of Amrapali group of companies Chander Wadhwa Aand the statutory auditor Anil Mittal to hand over all the papers in their possession and co-operate with the forensic auditors, warning them that any non-cooperation would at their peril.
The CFO Chander Wadhwa, who had apparently feigned memory loss before the forensic auditors, today answered all questions of the bench. He apologized for his early memory loss.
Telling that his “memory has come back” and was “intact”, the court directed him to extend full co-operation unless he wanted to join CMD Sharma and two other directors who after day’s work with forensic auditors have to confine themselves to a hotel room in NOIDA.
“If you have some kind of remorse, then start co-operating with forensic auditors fully”, the bench told Wadhwa.
The court also made it clear to statutory auditor Anil Mital that any vacillation in carrying out the direction of the court could land him in trouble.
