The Supreme Court has rejected the bail plea of
former CMD of Amrapali Group of Companies Anil Kumar Sharma, saying he cheated
thousands of home buyers and did not deserve any sympathy.
A bench comprising Justices Ajay Rastogi and Bela M
Trivedi refused to issue notice to the prosecuting agency on the bail plea of
Sharma, who has been in jail for over four years in the case.
"You have cheated thousands of home buyers.You
siphoned off their hard-earned money and their life savings. You do not deserve
any sympathy," the bench said on Thursday.
The former CMD of the real estate group and other
directors of the firm were arrested on the direction of the top court after the
forensic audit report revealed that a large amount of home buyers' money was
siphoned off by the management.
It said the offence ran "very deep" and
even the court was facing difficulties in tackling the problem.
Yours is not a case of simple cheating. See the
plight of thousands of home buyers. You cannot have our sympathy. You better
enjoy being in jail... This court is very aware of what you did. You created
the mess and we are not able to find a way out of it. A large number of home
buyers are suffering," the bench said.
Earlier, the top court had granted Sharma interim
bail for a few weeks on medical grounds in the case.
Sharma and others have been in jail after their
arrest in 2018 for various offences, including that of cheating, criminal
breach of trust and money laundering and have spent nearly four years in
prison. They have been accused of siphoning home buyers money.
The apex court, in its July 23, 2019 verdict, had
cracked down on errant builders for breaching the trust reposed by home buyers
and ordered the cancellation of registration of the Amrapali Group under real
estate law RERA and ousted it from prime properties in the national capital
region (NCR) by nixing the land leases.
The top court had directed a probe by the
Enforcement Directorate (ED) into alleged money laundering by realtors,
providing relief to over 42,000 home buyers of the Amrapali Group with the
verdict.
Besides ED, the Economic Offence Wing (EoW) of the
Delhi Police and the Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO) has also been
investigating various cases lodged against the former officials of the real
estate group.