With Amrapali directors finally being sent to police remand, the Supreme Court displays that it is fed up with delaying tactics

This is a classic tale of the walls coming crashing down on a high-flying group. Once upon a time, the Amrapali Group of real-estate developers had signed up Indian cricket captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni, who was then as he is now, an icon of a newly-confident India. Dhoni had lifted the World Cup in Mumbai and his image on billboards and newspaper advertisements promoting Amrapali developments were splashed across the NCR, where the group was building several high-profile new buildings, particularly in the Noida and Greater Noida region. However, when the bottom came crashing down on the real-estate market as demand collapsed and the good times ended, Amrapali, which had diverted funds from one project to another in the expectation that good times would never end, found itself left without any money. The problem was that running out of money meant that over 42,000 home buyers were left high and dry also, paying back loans on home that did not exist, in many cases even the work on the buildings had not even started. And as for Dhoni, he also claimed that the group owed him Rs 150 crore in fees, and much like the homeowners he was also cheated.

The case against the group has been winding its way through the Supreme Court which demanded a forensic audit of the accounts of the company and all its subsidiaries to find out where the money towards building homes went. However, the court-appointed auditors found themselves stymied by the developers and their lawyers. But finally, the Supreme Court decided that enough was enough and sent three directors of the company into police custody until they share the accounts of the company. The company has dodged doing so until now because possibly revealing the accounts will prove that the company did indeed, as many homebuyers allege, siphon off money into personal accounts. However, the question is whether a few nights in the lock-up of a Police Station change their minds? Even if it does, the fact is that as of today, there is not much the Supreme Court can do to get the funds back towards completing the buildings and the group is clearly not in a position to pay compensation to the homebuyers also. And this story is repeated across several other groups as well. Contracting the public-sector NBCC towards finishing many of the projects as the Supreme Court has said might provide succor in the long-term, the the navratna company, which is in the midst of finishing several major projects in Delhi, might be overextended and take several years to complete these projects and there are few answers to where the funds to complete the projects will come from. Not only has the real-estate sector soured, continuing incidents like that of Amrapali, Unitech and Jaypee have shattered the confidence of homebuyers as well as potential homebuyers and not just in the NCR but across the country. The Supreme Court might help and punish those who cheated the homebuyers, whether they did so deliberately or not, but may not be able to do anything to make the market regain confidence.