piramal realty: High Court sets aside attachment of Piramal Realty’s properties worth ₹410 crore

The Delhi High Court has set aside a provisional attachment of Piramal Realty’s properties worth ₹410 crore by the Enforcement Directorate. In an order passed a week ago, the high court relied upon a catena of Supreme Court judgments to rule that the provisional attachment of properties done by the ED “cannot continue” as the realty company “was not arrayed as an accused and was merely a lender to M/s Omkar Realtors and Developers (“ORDPL”)”, a company which was being investigated by the agency on charges of money laundering.

The HC made it clear that the ED was at liberty to seek the revival of the provisional attachment orders “in accordance with law, if there is any change in the circumstances”.

The company (Piramal) has also been granted liberty “to move an appropriate application if the properties are not released”.

According to ED, Omkar Group took a ₹410-crore loan from Yes Bank to construct buildings for slum dwellers under a Slum Rehabilitation Authority (SRA) scheme at Wadala in Mumbai, but redirected the money to other companies. The agency is probing an alleged ₹22,000 crore SRA scandal by promoters of Omkar Realtors & Developers, Kamal Gupta and Babulal Verma. The agency had last year trained its focus on their association with the Piramal Group’s real estate arm. The high court last August, as first reported by ET, had restrained the petitioner company (Piramal Realty) from “disposing of or creating third-party rights or encumbering” the property.

Appearing on behalf of the company, advocate Vijay Aggarwal argued that there was no nexus between the company’s bona fide interest in the attached properties and any alleged offence or proceeds of crime.

Aggarwal further contended that in January this year, the Mumbai Police filed a closure report against Omkar Relators and even the case instituted by the ED had been closed.

He claimed that Piramal Reality was merely one of the lenders and the ED in a “completely improper manner” attached its properties.