NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Thursday directed auction of 16 properties of the Amrapali Group under the supervision of state-run National Buildings Construction Corporation (NBCC). The court has also ordered forensic audit 46 companies of the group.

The top court had on Tuesday observed it appears that a "big scandal is taking place in the name of real estate business" and termed it as a "big serious fraud" committed on the homebuyers.

The court had asked the Amrapali Group to cooperate with the auditors or face sealing of its premises and forensic audit of accounts of all entities including directors, their wives and daughters.

As the National Buildings Construction Corporation India Ltd (NBCC) gave a proposal for completion of 15 residential projects having 46,575 flats at an estimated cost of Rs 8,500 crores in 6-36 months, a bench of Justices Arun Mishra and U U Lalit had said the court will try to reach the persons responsible for the fraud and retrieve each and every money siphoned off from various projects.

(With PTI inputs)