Religare fraud accused Singh brothers, others get 4-day police custody

A Delhi court on Friday (October 11) sent pharma giant Ranbaxy’s former promoters Shivinder Singh and Malvinder Singh, and three others arrested in a fraud case, to four-day police custody.

The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the Delhi Police on Thursday arrested Shivinder, Religare’s former MD Sunil Godhwani, Kavi Arora and Sunil Saxena for their alleged role in the fraud case. Shivinder’s brother Malvinder was arrested later in the night. They are accused of causing a loss of ₹2,397 crore to Religare Enterprises.

The police told the court that custodial interrogation of the arrested was necessary as they were allegedly involved in diversion of public money and needs to be tracked, reported news agency PTI.

Also read | Ranbaxy’s ex-promoter Shivinder Singh arrested in ₹740 crore fraud case

The EOW 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.

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 were also the former promoters of their family-owned hospital chain Fortis Healthcare and had tendered their resignations in February last year.

Also read | Will send you to jail if found guilty: SC to Ranbaxy promoters

They 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.

The case pertained to Daiichi alleging that 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.

(With inputs from agencies)