NEW DELHI: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) Thursday filed a charge sheet against R K Arora, chairman and promoter of real estate major Supertech Group, his company, and eight others in a money laundering case, accusing them of hatching a 'criminal conspiracy' to cheat home buyers. They have been accused of defrauding at least 670 home buyers of Rs 164 crore.
The nearly 100-page prosecution complaint, ED’s equivalent of a charge sheet, was filed before Special Judge Devender Kumar Jangala, claiming there was sufficient evidence to prosecute the businessman. The court posted the matter for August 28 to take cognizance of the charge sheet. Arora was arrested on June 27 under the criminal sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) after three rounds of questioning.
The money-laundering case against the Supertech group, its directors, and promoters stems from a clutch of FIRs registered by police in Delhi, Haryana, and Uttar Pradesh. ED’s Special Public Prosecutor N K Matta and advocate Mohd Faizan Khan had told the court that the anti-money laundering agency was probing the matter related to 26 FIRs registered by the Economic Offences Wing 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. According to the charge sheet, the company and its directors hatched a “criminal conspiracy” to cheat people by collecting funds from prospective home buyers as an advance against flats booked in their real estate projects.
The company allegedly did not adhere to the agreed obligation of providing possession of the flats on time and “defrauded” the public, the agency said, adding the funds were collected by Supertech Limited and other group companies. The company also took project-specific term loans from banks and financial institutions for the purpose of construction of housing projects, the ED said.
However, these funds were 'misappropriated and diverted' for buying land in the name of other group companies which were pledged as collateral to borrow funds from banks and financial institutions, it said. The group defaulted on payments to banks and financial institutions, and around `1,500 crores of loans have become non-performing assets (NPA), the ED said.
Criminal conspiracy to cheat people
According to the charge sheet, the company and its directors hatched a “criminal conspiracy” to cheat people by collecting funds from prospective home buyers as an advance against flats booked in their real estate projects. The Supertech group also defaulted on payments to banks and financial institutions