After being duped of their money by fraudulent promoters, homebuyers of bankrupt Amrapali group have received fresh hope. Forensic auditors examining the case say that Rs 9,590 crore can be recovered from the group, which may solve the problem of raising the funds necessary to complete work on thousands of apartments.
Homebuyers in the group’s projects have also met the Secretary of the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) seeking a probe into the misuse of funds by promoters. The company is already under the scanner, but despite gross violations in corporate governance, no concrete action has been initiated so far by investigative agencies.
“As per the auditors, it is possible to raise the required funds to complete the stuck projects. The money trail is clear and the entire diverted capital can be brought back. The assets of the group can also help raising money. Together, this will come to around Rs 9,500 crore, which is a decent amount to complete stuck projects,” a senior official from the NBCC pointed out.
In January this year, the Supreme Court had given the go-ahead to state-owned National Building Construction Corporation (NBCC) to complete two of the group’s stalled projects. NBCC’s appointment by the top court came after the company proposed to complete Amrapali’s 16 stuck projects, comprising 46,575 flats, within 36 months at a construction cost of Rs 8,500 crore.
According to the report submitted by the forensic auditors to the court last week, the promoters and top officials of Amrapali Group had diverted thousands of crores of homebuyers’ money to fund personal expenses and for building their own business empire.
The audit report also reveals that around Rs 3,500 crore of homebuyers’ money was diverted by the Amrapali top brass, with this money spent on houses, luxury cars and weddings among other things. Some of this money was also invested in shares and mutual funds.
In September 2017, a bench of the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) had initiated insolvency proceedings at the behest of Bank of Baroda against Amrapali Infrastructure for dues of over Rs 50 crore.
Meanwhile, homebuyers of Amrapali’s Dream Valley project, comprising around 11,000 unfinished flats, moved the Supreme Court against the decision claiming that their interests wouldn’t be protected if insolvency proceedings are initiated.