Delhi court sends Malvinder, Shivinder Singh to 14-day judicial custody

On expiry of their 6-day police custody, a Delhi court on Thursday (October 17) remanded former Fortis Healthcare promoters Malvinder Singh and his brother Shivinder Singh to 14-day judicial custody for allegedly misappropriating funds of Religare Finvest Ltd (RFL).

Metropolitan Magistrate Nishant Garg also sent three others, Sunil Godhwani, Kavi Arora and Anil Saxena to judicial custody till October 31.

The bail plea moved by the Singh brothers will be heard along with that of Arora on Friday (October 18).

The Economic Offences Wing had registered an FIR in March after it received a complaint from Manpreet Singh Suri of the Religare Finvest Ltd (RFL) against Shivinder, Godhwani and others alleging that loans were taken by them while managing the firm but the money was invested in other companies, the report said.

Also read: How the Singh brothers of Ranbaxy and Religare lost their billions

According to the police, the complainant stated that they had absolute control on REL and its subsidiaries. “They put RFL in poor financial condition by disbursing loans to companies having no financial standing and being controlled by them. The companies to which loans were disbursed willfully defaulted in repayments and caused a loss to RFL to the tune of ₹2,397 crore,” Mishra had alleged.

The two brothers had sold Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd, the multi-billion dollar pharmaceutical company founded by their father, to the Japanese company Daiichi Sankyo in 2008 to focus on Healthcare and financial services firm Religare Enterprises.

However, both suffered from financial woes. Earlier, reports had said that the Supreme Court directed the duo to pay dues of ₹3,500 crore to Daiichi, as awarded by a Singapore tribunal in connection with a case against them.

While selling Ranbaxy’s shares, the two brothers had concealed information that it was facing probe by the US Food and Drug Administration and the Department of Justice, reports said.