Amrapali ‘stole’ 11.28 acres from projects, homebuyers claim land records of 3 projects don’t tally

The distressed realty group Amrapali is in for fresh trouble as homebuyers claim that the company frittered away 11.28 acres out of the 182.42 acre land allotted to it by the Greater Noida Authority for its three housing projects at Greater Noida (West). This information was shared with the Supreme Court on Thursday by the Amrapali Homebuyers’ Association ahead of Friday’s crucial hearing. 

The report of the Supreme Court-appointed forensic auditors on diversion of funds will be discussed today.

The homebuyers told the apex court that the land disclosed by the company under each individual housing project does not reconcile with the details of projects issued by the Greater Noida Authority. 

The homebuyers, led by advocate ML Lahoty, checked the Lease Deed and found discrepancies with regard to five housing projects. 

In two of these projects, land was sub-leased by Amrapali Group. There was discrepancy to the tune of 11.28 acre which remained unexplained.

The above facts have only strengthened the fear of the Supreme Court. 

On Wednesday, the bench of Justices Arun Mishra and UU Lalit had observed, “There is a big fraud involved. It is a big racket that needs to be unearthed.”

The three housing projects where the records of land do not match are Smart City (Golf Homes), Leisure Park, and Leisure Valley, all situated in Greater Noida (West). As per the lease deed, the total plot area is 2,45,441.96 square metre which is confirmed by the Greater Noida Authority in its affidavit submitted to the SC on September 12, 2018. But in the information supplied by Amrapali, the area of plot is shown as 2,38,870 square metre. There is a discrepancy of 6,571.96 sqm (approx 1.62 acre). On inspection, homebuyers found that a nursing home is being constructed on this land.

In Leisure Valley project, the lease deed shows the total land allotted as 4,19,519.2 sqm of which 32,914.2 sqm has been sliced out as the Greater Noida authority records the project to be spread across 3,86,605 sqm. The homeowners could not ascertain if the land was sold to anyone. 

At Leisure Park project, as per the lease deed and Greater Noida Authority, land allotted was 1,06,196 sqm while Amrapali has shown the total land covered by the project as 1,00,000 sqm. There is no explanation as to where the 6,196 sqm of land has gone.

In two other projects – Dream Valley and Centurion Park, the homebuyers discovered that 93,991 sqm (approx 23 acre) and 44,270 sqm (approx 11 acre) respectively were sub-leased or sold. The homebuyers told the SC that this was an illegal exercise. If the total land sold or sub-leased is taken as a whole, the Amrapali Group has to explain what it did with the almost 45 acres of land made available to it by the Uttar Pradesh government to construct houses.