New Delhi, Jun 4 (IANS): The Supreme Court on Friday granted an interim bail of 15-days to Unitech Ltd's former promoter Sanjay Chandra to attend the last rites of his father-in-law, who expired this week.

A bench comprising Justices Indira Banerjee and M R Shah after hearing Chandra's counsel arguments on application for interim bail, agreed to grant him relief for 15 days.

However, the top court declined to his counsel's submissions seeking more time. The bench asked Chandra's counsel to understand the circumstances under which, his client's bail was earlier stayed by the top court in March, this year.

The top court in August last year, had refused to grant bail to Chandra, who was in July, granted interim bail for 30 days, as his parents had tested positive for Covid-19.

The top court had then directed Chandra to surrender within three days, and it had also dismissed the bail application of Chandra's brother Ajay Chandra, who is in jail since August 2017.

The brothers have been accused of allegedly siphoning homebuyers' money, who had invested in their company's housing projects.

In March 2021, a bench headed by Justice D.Y. Chandrachud, had pulled up the Delhi High Court and a Chief Metropolitan Magistrate for going over its head in entertaining the bail applications of Chandra brothers, when it had denied them bail in August last year.

The top court had observed that granting bail in the matter was shocking exercise of judicial power and also breach of judicial discipline.

In August 2020, a bench comprising Justices Chandrachud and MR Shah had said the brothers have not complied with the October 2017 order of the top court, according to which, Rs 750 crore was to be deposited with the registry of the court by December 31, 2017, to be eligible for bail.

In December 2019, Grant and Thornton had submitted a forensic audit report before the top court revealing that an amount of Rs 14,270 crore was collected by Unitech from 29,800 homebuyers.

The report allegedly claimed that Rs 13,364 crore, out of that amount, was traced to the bank statements. The report said almost 90 per cent of the money was received between 2006 to 2014.