The Supreme Court on Thursday allowed the Delhi police to arrest and interrogate in custody Amrapali group CMD Anil Sharma and two of the company’s directors on a complaint that the home buyers of their various housing projects were cheated and duped of their funds.

The top court, which has several pleas of home buyers seeking possession of around 42,000 flats booked in projects of the Amrapali group, also ordered the attachment of the personal properties of the CMD and the ctors — Shiv Priya and Ajay Kumar. The attached assets also included the south Delhi-based bungalow of Sharma.

The trio, under detention of the Uttar Pradesh police and kept in a hotel at Noida since October 9 by the apex court for not complying with its orders, was in for a shock when the bench of justices Arun Mishra and U. U. Lalit ordered the arrest on a plea by the Economic Offence Wing (EOW) of the Delhi police, saying that it wanted to quiz them in a separate cheating case.

“We had never ever stopped any agency from arresting and interrogating the directors,” the bench said, adding, “We make it clear that they (EOW) are free to arrest any or all directors”.

The group and its 46 companies are accused of not handing over to the homebuyers their promised flats from 2008 onwards and also diverting Rs 2,740 crore, including advances from the investors for the project spread across Delhi and Noida, Uttar Pradesh.

The bench directed the court-appointed forensic auditors to complete their detailed investigation on the divergence of homebuyers’ money by the Amrapali group before March 22 and listed the matter for hearing on March 24.

The court also issued notices and directed 200 people and companies who have had monetary transactions with the Amrapali group to appear before the forensic auditors appointed by the court.