Supertech chairman detained, let go after he agrees to pay dues to district officials

The Gautam Budh Nagar district administration’s Dadri tehsil officials on Monday detained realty major Supertech Limited’s chairman RK Arora for several hours and sent him to Luksar jail, from where he allowed to go only after he assured them of making payments towards recovery notices sent on the directions of the Uttar Pradesh Real Estate Regulatory Authority (UP-Rera).

Arora’s two companies — Supertech Township and Realtech — owed the UP-Rera ₹30 crore, meant to be disbursed to homebuyers who have demanded refunds owing to delay in projects.The firms failed to pay up despite repeated recovery notices, said district officials.

The parent company, Supertech Limited, is facing corporate insolvency resolution process after it failed to pay its debt to the banks. The National Company Law Tribunal has appointed an interim resolution professional,who is currently in control of the parent firm’s multiple incomplete housing and commercial projects.

“We called Arora to the Dadri office to recover 30 crore from his two companies, Supertech Township and Realtech. The two companies failed to make payment despite us issuing RCs and sealing offices. We detained Arora around 5pm and sent him to Luksar jail. But later he gave us a payment plan and assured us of making prompt payments, after which the subdivisional magistrate released him around 8,40pm,” said Vandita Srivastava, additional district magistrate, Gautam Budh Nagar.

The administration is yet to recover around 500 crore from 50 realtors, who defaulted on payments to UP-Rera, which had asked the administration to issue recovery notices and collect the amount.

UP-Rera resorted to these harsh steps after homebuyers filed pleas before it demanding a refund of their money invested in projects, which are yet to be delivered by developers.

“We recover the money from realtors and then pay it to UP-Rera, which then refunds the money to homebuyers, who have sought relief from the authority,” said an administration official, asking not to be named.

The administration is in the process of recovering the defaulted amount from at least 50 realtors and, in the past one month, it has sealed assets of 10 realtors, including Supertech Limited.

“We have directed all staff members to strictly take steps to recover the dues from all defaulters. We have formed 40 teams and they are on the job,” said Maneesh Kumar Verma, district magistrate, Gautam Budh Nagar.

Arora, when contacted, refuted the claims made by district officials and said he was neither “detained” nor “arrested”.

“I went to meet the district magistrate and other officials to address a complaint filed by a buyer of Up Country project. We satisfied them that we will make payments as per the schedule submitted. We have already paid 5 crore of the 30 crore and the remaining amount will be paid as per the schedule submitted to district officials,” said Arora.