Amrapali to get up to ₹1K cr fund infusion from SBI CAP

NEWDELHI: The Supreme Court on Friday asked that the Enforcement Directorate (ED) take over all cases lodged by homebuyers in Delhi and surrounding areas against the now-defunct Amrapali group.

Meanwhile, SBI Capital (SBICAP) Ventures, which manages the government-sponsored Special Window for Affordable and Mid-income Housing or SWAMIH Investment Fund I has agreed to fund the completion of eight projects of the defunct Amrapali group.

On Friday, appearing for the company, senior advocate Harish Salve told the Supreme Court in a videoconferencing proceeding that SBICAP has agreed to infuse close to ₹1,000 crore as debt in eight Amrapali Group projects from the ₹25,000 crore fund for stressed real estate projects set up by the government.

This will help the state-run NBCC, which was ordered by the Supreme Court to complete the stalled projects get on with its work, benefitting hundreds of homebuyers.

“Eight housing projects have been identified. In two weeks we will submit a concrete plan before the Court,” Salve informed a bench of Justices Arun Mishra and UU Lalit. The bench permitted SBICAP to present the final plan on August 4. Under the proposed plan, a special purpose vehicle will be created with SWAMIH Investment Fund, acting through its Investment Manager, SBICAP, putting in a total of ₹995 crore in eight housing projects of Amrapali. It has been almost a year since the SC on July 23, 2019 cancelled the registration of Amrapali group after establishing that the firm illegally diverted homebuyers’ money.

The ED informed the Court that the attached wealth of a JP Morgan unit, alleged to have helped Amrapali in laundering around ₹187 crore, has been deposited into the account maintained by the Court for construction of Amrapali projects. On the clarification sought by the Delhi Police’s Economic Offences Wing on handling cases launched against the group and its promoters by homebuyers, the court said ED would investigate them all.

PTI contributed to this story.