R K Kapoor, 76, starts his mornings by logging on to the court website for an update on his case, hoping for some positive development. But each time he checks, he said, the uncertainty remains.Kapoor, who used to run a business, put his life savings into a commercial shop in the TechOne project on the Yamuna Expressway, hoping for a regular income and financial independence in retirement. 19,000 buyers together invested around Rs 2,004 crore into nine projects of Earth Infrastructures Ltd (EIL) across Greater Noida, Gurgaon, Lucknow and Delhi-NCR.Thirteen years on, he has neither the shop nor the assured return he was promised. “We have spent these precious years pursuing justice through Tis Hazari Courts, NCLT, NCLAT and finally the Supreme Court,” he told The Indian Express.The strain of endless litigation, he said, makes him feel as though he has already crossed 80. R K KapoorKapoor is among more than 19,000 buyers who together invested around Rs 2,004 crore into nine projects of Earth Infrastructures Ltd (EIL) across Greater Noida, Gurgaon, Lucknow and Delhi-NCR. All nine projects had stalled by 2015, with none completed or delivered.This month, the Enforcement Directorate, represented by standing counsel Rahul Tyagi, challenged the bail granted to Atul Gupta, one of the company’s founding promoters. The appeal will be heard in the Delhi High Court in the last week of October.For buyers, it is another court hearing in a wait that, in some cases, has outlasted their lives.Story continues below this ad“Children have grown up, families have postponed important milestones, retirement plans have collapsed — precious years that should have been spent with loved ones have instead been consumed by uncertainty,” Kapoor said. Uma Ahuja‘Will I live long enough to see justice?’More than 10 years ago, Uma Ahuja and her husband paid Rs 60 lakh for two shops in Earth Sapphire Court in Greater Noida, hoping the investment would provide them with a regular income in their old age.Her husband did not live to see the shops delivered. At 72, Uma is still waiting, dependent on her Haryana government pension.“At my age, I should be spending my remaining years peacefully, not trying to understand insolvency proceedings, court orders, legal appeals and the names of different builders,” said Uma, a retired professor of genetics from Haryana Agricultural University in Hisar. “I am not a lawyer, I invested in a shop, not in a lifetime of litigation.”Story continues below this ad“My Rs 60 lakh is stuck. What more am I expected to sacrifice? Will I ever see my money again? Will I live long enough to see justice?” she asked. Raj Kumar‘Our life savings dried up’Raj Kumar, 72, is a civil engineer with an MBA who spent his career in real estate project management. He booked an office space with EIL for Rs 28 lakh, hoping to open a consultancy office after retirement. The office was meant to mark the beginning of his second innings.Instead, it took away everything he had. “My wife and I worked hard to earn a livelihood, all our life savings were invested in this office space… everything dried up,” said Kumar.As the wait continued, buyers began organising to pursue their claims. Kumar said investors, many of them from a military background, formed the Earth Buyer Association for Justice, headed by a retired Director General of Police (Central-CBI), to fight for justice.Story continues below this ad“Several investors have died in these years of waiting, after investing all their savings,” Kumar claimed. M L VermaWaiting since 2012M L Verma, a 70-year-old retired government servant, also invested in an office space in the TechOne project, hoping he’ll have a “tension-free retirement”. He has been waiting since 2012.“At this age, I have endless mental and financial strain and it seems there is no end… My retirement corpus has already vanished in court proceedings, fees of advocates, legal expenses and other court expenses. All my dreams and retirement plans have collapsed,” he said.“It is my humble submission to give us justice while we are still alive to experience it,” Verma added.Story continues below this adThe case against Atul GuptaLegal proceedings against Gupta began in 2016-17, when the Delhi Police’s Economic Offences Wing (EOW) registered five FIRs for cheating, criminal breach of trust and criminal conspiracy. Chargesheets filed in 2017-18 covered more than 1,500 victims and losses exceeding Rs 550 crore.Gupta spent more than three years in jail before securing bail in the EOW case on June 10, 2021.The ED began its money laundering probe on April 1, 2022, and arrested Gupta under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) on June 1, 2026, alleging that Rs 336.26 crore of buyers’ money had been diverted for purposes other than construction.On September 29, Principal District and Sessions Judge (Central) Anju Bajaj Chandna granted Gupta regular bail. Judge Chandna accepted that the ED had shown foundational facts of money laundering, but pointed to the agency’s delay in acting after registering its case.Story continues below this adWith the prosecution complaint filed, four months already spent in custody, and a trial involving thousands of documents and 71 witnesses, the court held that continued detention “would result in an unwarranted and disproportionate restriction upon his personal liberty without any demonstrable necessity”.The ED called the order legally untenable, arguing that the trial court ignored the stringent mandatory twin conditions for bail under Section 45 of the PMLA.It alleged that Gupta kept laundering money between January 2022 and June 2023 after his bail in the EOW case, including by routing Rs 4 crore through a paper company that returned cash, in land sales by a struck-off group firm, and through land deals involving his wife.EIL is currently undergoing the Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process (CIRP) and has been under insolvency proceedings before the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) since mid-2018.