Supreme Court orders forensic audit of all 74 Unitech group companies

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday ordered forensic audit of all Unitech group companies similar to that of Amrapali Group.

The apex court has ordered for the appointment of an auditor who will do audit of all the 74 companies of  Unitech group and its subsidiary companies since 2006. The Court has asked the forensic auditor to be present before it next Friday.

Sanjay Chandra, the MD of the firm and his brother Ajay Chandra are in jail. Chandra is seeking interim bail from the apex court after the Delhi High Court on August 11 last year had rejected the plea in a criminal case lodged in 2015 by 158 home buyers of Unitech projects -- 'Wild Flower Country' and 'Anthea Project' -- situated at Gurgaon in Haryana.

Chandra's lawyer had pressed for his bail today, however the court said that his bail can not be granted till the completion of the company's  forensic audit.

In August, SC directed a panel headed by former Delhi High Court judge Justice S N Dhingra to go ahead with the sale of unencumbered assets of the directors of real estate major Unitech Ltd to refund money to hassled home buyers.

The court had on July 5 asked the Justice Dhingra panel to proceed with the auction of Unitech Ltd's unencumbered properties at Agra and Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh and Sriperumbudur in Tamil Nadu to refund money to home buyers.

The top court had earlier set up the three-member panel for "expeditious" auction of over 600 acres of land of the real estate firm for refunding money to home buyers who do not want possession of their homes or flats.

The Income Tax department had also moved the apex court for making itself a party in the ongoing litigation claiming that the real estate firm owed it Rs 950 crore as tax.

With PTI Inputs