Director of realty firm arrested for failing to pay dues of ₹254 crore

Noida: The district administration of Gautam Budh Nagar arrested the developer of a real estate project, Pan Oasis, after he failed to pay dues of around ₹254 crore

Noida: The district administration of Gautam Budh Nagar arrested the developer of a real estate project, Pan Oasis, after he failed to pay dues of around ₹254 crore on Friday.

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Multiple recovery certificates were issued against the company director after which the arrest took place. The arrested director has been identified as Amit Chawla — he was taken into custody from his office in Sector 70 of Noida.

According to officials, Pan Oasis is a project in Sector 121, Noida. A recovery certificate was issued against the company in the month of October after multiple notices to Chawla to clear his dues, failed to elicit a response.

Chawla had paid around ₹5 crore after the recovery certificate was issued against him, but the amount was nothing when compared to his outstanding dues of ₹254 crore. “Chawla was arrested after he failed to clear his dues. He had paid a small amount to avoid the arrest but that amount is too small to even get a consideration. We got in touch with him many times but he couldn’t pay following which he was arrested,” Rajiv Rai, subdivisional magistrate, said.

The recovery certificate was issued against the company by the Noida authority and it is the duty of the administration officials to recover the money. The action has been taken as per the guidelines of the Uttar Pradesh Revenue Code.

“If Chawla can manage to pay his dues, then he will be released. Otherwise, he will have to remain in the lock-up for 14 days. Even after serving 14 days in custody, he can be arrested again after a gap of a day if he fails to pay up,” Rai said. Chawla has been sent to 14-day custody in a lock-up at the tehsildar’s office.

Efforts to reach out to Chawla’s office elicited no response.

According to the SDM, officials will start attaching the movable and immovable properties of Chawla if he fails to clear his dues. The district administration is also in the process of coming with an e-auctioning platform to reach out to maximum buyers to auction attached properties of various builders and other defaulters.

Officials believe that this initiative will help them in reaching out to a larger number of interested bidders from all over the country. The department currently is going through the legalities of the procedure of e-auctioning before taking the approval of the Uttar Pradesh government for the same.