Delhi High Court seeks ED's response on Supertech chairman R K Arora's bail plea

New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Wednesday sought the Enforcement Directorate's (ED) response on a plea by R K Arora, the chairman and promoter of realty major Supertech Group, challenging an order denying him bail in a money laundering case.

Justice Manoj Kumar Ohri issued notice to the ED and listed the matter for further hearing on February 21.

Arora has sought to set aside a January 24 trial court order which dismissed his regular bail plea. Arora's counsel urged the court to consider the prayer, saying he has been in custody for the last six months.

The trial court had noted that his earlier bail plea was dismissed on July 22, 2023, and said that there was no substantive change in the circumstances.

The filing of a prosecution complaint by the ED does not amount to a change of material circumstances after the dismissal of the previous bail application, it had said, adding that it was not inclined to entertain his bail plea.

A prosecution complaint is the ED's equivalent of a charge sheet.

On January 16, the trial court had granted 30-day interim bail to Arora on medical grounds in the money laundering case. This order has already been challenged in the high court and is pending adjudication.

While granting interim bail to Arora, the trial court had directed him not to leave the National Capital Territory of Delhi or the country without prior permission of the court and ordered him to surrender his passport in the court.

It had also said that he would not use the liberty of interim bail for any other purpose except for better medical treatment/surgery, and better nursing and nutritional care.

Arora was arrested by the ED on June 27, 2023, under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

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.

The ED has been probing 26 FIRs registered by the Economic Offences Wings of Delhi, Haryana, and Uttar Pradesh police against Supertech Ltd. and its group companies for alleged criminal conspiracy, cheating and criminal breach of trust and forgery. They have been accused of defrauding at least 670 homebuyers of Rs 164 crore.

According to the charge sheet, the company and its directors hatched a "criminal conspiracy" to cheat people by collecting funds from prospective homebuyers in advance against flats booked in their projects.

The company did not adhere to the agreed obligation of providing possession of the flats in time and "defrauded" the general public, the agency has said.

The ED claimed its probe revealed that funds were collected by Supertech Ltd. and other group companies from homebuyers.

The company also took project-specific term loans from banks and other 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 other financial institutions, it added.

The Supertech Group also defaulted on payments to banks and financial institutions, rendering around Rs 1,500 crore of such loans non-performing assets in the process, the ED said.

Established in 1988, Supertech Ltd. has so far delivered around 80,000 apartments, mainly in the Delhi-NCR region. The company is currently developing around 25 projects across the National Capital Region (NCR). It is yet to give possession to more than 20,000 buyers.