Forensic auditors assigned by SC found Rs 5,000 crore diverted funds by Unitech real estate developer.

When forensic auditors found theft of funds, the Supreme Court ordered the government to take over control of the Unitech real estate developer. “The auditors reported that at least Rs 5,000 crore of funds received from home buyers were not used to building projects,” said Pawan Shree Agarwal, amicus curiae on the subject, on Wednesday.

The amicus curiae, an independent legal investigator appointed by the court, has called on enforcement agencies to send the audit report results to the Attorney General for further action. Unitech received Rs 14,270 crore from 29,800 home buyers, as per the forensic auditors. Of this, the bank statements have identified Rs 13,364 crore.

The auditors, headed by Samir Paranjpe, told the court that they noticed fund diversion cases, like money diverted to a Cyprus-based company, and suspicious investment write-offs and advances to related parties.

Agarwal demanded a change in management by the court because that was necessary to identify funds that might be used for the construction of apartments provided by National Building Construction Corporation, which had already been proposed by the Supreme Court.

After the home buyers denounced that the firm had failed to give possession of apartments to them despite taking advances of several hundred crores, the Supreme Court assigned forensic auditors Grant Thornton to probe Unitech’s affairs. Grant Thornton’s forensics division is been headed by Paranjpe.