Amrapali CEO held for not paying labour cess

NOIDA: Gautam Budh Nagar district administration on Monday arrested and sent to jail two officials of realty group, Amrapali.

The arrested duo includes Rithik Sinha, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the realty company who is also the CMD Anil Sharma's son-in-law and Nishant Mukul, director of the group.

The move comes following the realtor's failure to pay an outstanding labour cess of Rs 4 crore for the last three years.

Speaking to TOI, Sub-Divisional Magistrate (SDM), Gautam Budh Nagar Amit Kumar said that "action was taken under provision of section 171 of the Land Revenue Act under". "The company had an outstanding of Rs 1.99 crore in 2014. However, when they failed to pay, a penal interest amounting to Rs 83 lakhs was imposed besides a penalty of Rs 1.72 crore," he explained.

"A final recovery notice was issued in March 2017 but when the builder failed to pay up, we took action on Monday. We have also sealed the head office of the builder located in sector 62 of Noida," Kumar said. "The two officials have been lodged in the Dadri tehsil jail," he added.

Amrapali officials could not be contacted for comment despite repeated attempts by TOI.

Deputy labour commissioner B K Rai said, "We have issued recovery notices to another 7 builders in the district who owe the government nearly Rs 10 crore. We will take stringent action against those who are not paying the labour cess," Rai warned.