 "Supreme Court")
The Supreme Court on Tuesday extended the medical bail by eight weeks of the former statutory auditor of Amrapali Group of companies and directed for constitution of the medical board at All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) for his examination.
A bench of Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and MM Sundresh perused the August 23 report of Sir Ganga Ram Hospital which opined that petitioner Anil Mittal should avoid using public toilets, squatting and outside food and beverages.
In view of the circumstances, we are of the view that the medical bail ought to be extended for the time being. The respondent to make the necessary arrangement at AIIMS for constitution of the Board and the petitioner will be informed after one month as to when he has to report to the Board. The report of the medical Board will be placed before us. List after eight weeks. The interim medical bail is extended till the next date, the bench said.
Senior advocate Sanjay Hegde, appearing for Mittal, said that he is suffering from various ailments and is advised proper care for recovery by the doctors.
Additional Solicitor General SV Raju, appearing for Enforcement Directorate, said since former statutory auditor of Amrapali Group of companies, got bail on medical grounds last November, time and again his bail has been extended by the trial court and high court and according to them his medical condition is better.
He said that Mittal played a grave role in diversion of thousands of crores of rupees of home buyers' money who invested in Amrapali Group of companies and it is being investigated.
Raju said that several sham companies were floated by him to aid diversion of funds and he has even been the recipient of proceeds of crime from the ill-gotten money.
The bench said, The time (referring to the second COVID wave) he was on bail was a difficult period not for him but for everybody. We should have sympathy for him even if done something wrong.
On July 23, 2019, the top court had held that no accounts were prepared from the years 2015-2018 and money withdrawn was diverted during the said period.
It has said that the statutory auditor, accused-applicant failed in his duty and was a part of fraudulent activities as found in the forensic report.
The top court had directed that the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to do investigation in accordance with law and submit reports quarterly to the Court as the money laundering aspect was also to be looked into by concerned authorities.
In pursuance of the directions of the top court, the ED undertook the investigation in respect of the money laundering allegedly by the Mittal and other accused and filed a complaint under Sections 3/4 of the PMLA before the special court at Lucknow.
In the supplementary complaint, ED has alleged that Mittal, who was the Statutory Auditor of the Companies had played vital role in diversion of funds from the Amrapali Group of Companies to other sham/bogus companies as well as other group of companies having no business relations in guise of inter-corporate deposits.
It was alleged by the probe agency that Mittal has also obtained monetary gains in the form of proceeds of crime and acquired properties from the same.
It pointed out that M/s Chandan Homes Private Ltd, M/s Mittal Homes Private Ltd, M/s Surbhi Buildhome Private Ltd were the shell companies controlled by him, which played an instrumental role in diversion of funds from the Companies to the accused-directors as well as him.
The ED had alleged in its complaint that Mittal had played an active role in furtherance of criminal conspiracy of money laundering wherein the money of flat/home buyers had been illegitimately diverted and layered through various sham transactions involving shell companies having dummy directors.
Mittal was arrested by ED and was in jail for around six months before being granted bail by the top court last year on November 3 for undergoing surgery.
The apex court in its July 23, 2019 verdict had cracked the whip on errant builders for breaching the trust reposed by home buyers and ordered the cancellation of the registration of the Amrapali Group under real estate law RERA, and ousted it from prime properties in the NCR by nixing the land leases.
Amrapali Group directors Anil Kumar Sharma, Shiv Priya and Ajay Kumar are behind bars on the top court's order.
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