Amazon on Tuesday called the February takeover of 835 of Future Retail (FRL) stores by Reliance a “sham transaction.”
“There was a mysterious switch of the leases,” Gopal Subramanium, the senior lawyer representing Amazon, told the Delhi High Court during a hearing on Tuesday.
The Delhi High Court will next hear the case on April 12 in an Amazon plea seeking enforcement of a Singapore-based arbitral tribunal’s order staying the sale of Future Group‘s retail assets to Reliance Retail.
In February, Reliance Projects & Property Management terminated sub-leases of about 800 Future Group stores and took possession as Reliance alleged Future Group failed to make rental payments for more than a year amounting to Rs 4,800 crore.
On Tuesday, Subramanium called FRL’s arguments that it could not pay the rents to landlords and therefore, Reliance had to step in a make the payments an “absolute lie” and said FRL managed to pay $14 million payment on a dollar bond in February.