SC denies bail to Unitech promoters

Satya Prakash

Advertisement

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, September 8

The Supreme Court on Friday declined interim bail to Unitech Managing Director Sanjay Chandra who is facing a criminal case lodged by buyers of its housing project in Gurugram and made it clear to him that he will have to refund homebuyers’ money by March 31, 2018.

A Bench headed by Chief Justice of India Dipk Misra rejected Chandra’s counsel Abhimanyu Bhandari’s proposal to hand over flats or refund money to homebuyers within two years.

The Bench said in any case the homebuyers’ money has to be refunded by the end of this financial year.

Bhandari said he had complied with all the conditions and deposited Rs 20 crore till now. As he kept repeating that unless Chandra was out of jail it would be difficult to manage things towards refund of homebuyers’ money, the Bench asked him to deposit some money and said his plea would be on the next date of hearing i.e. September 15.

It said if granted bail, he would have to sell land and deposit money towards refund to homebuyers every three weeks and the process should be over by March 31, 2018.

It also appointed advocate Pawan C Agrawal as amucus curiae (court’s friend) and asked him to submit the details of homebuyers, names of the housing projectes they have invested in and if they wanted refund or were ready to wait for handover of flats.

It said homebuyers seeking refunds will be given money on pro-rata basis and those wanting flats will be given the same.

Sanjay Chandra and his brother Ajay Chandra had moved the apex court against the August 11 order of the Delhi High Court refusing to grant interim bail to them and asked them to file a status report.

Five buyers of the Unitech's Anthea Floors Wildflower Country project led by some Delhi residents had filed a complaint for registration of FIR against the company in 2015. Later, 90 more complaints were lodged against the company for the same project. These 90 complaints were clubbed with the FIR.