The Economic Offences Wing (EoW) of the Delhi police has arrested Shivinder Mohan Singh, the erstwhile promoter of Religare Enterprises Limited (REL) on Thursday, along with REL’s former chief Sunil Godhwani. Malvinder Mohan Singh, the elder brother was not arrested since he wasn’t in Delhi. A lookout notice has been issued against him, the Economic Times reports.
The arrests were made after a complaint of misappropriation of funds of Religare Finvest, which is REL’s lending arm. Shivinder and Malvinder have been accused of misappropriation of funds to the tune of Rs 740 crore. A criminal complaint was filed by Religare Finvest against the brothers in December 2018 with the EoW. A case was filed in May this year and their residences too were raided by Enforcement Directorate in August.
According to a Financial Express report, the brothers were accused of criminal actions under the Indian Penal Code (IPC) including cheating, criminal breach of trust, criminal misappropriation, and forgery with regard to issuance and redemption of preference shares of REL between 2008-16.
The Singh brothers sold Ranbaxy Laboratories for Rs 10,000 crore in 2008, after which they wanted to create something in the healthcare and financial services empire. However, the ET report states that they were mired in various charges of fraud, siphoning of funds, and mounting debt. It was this debt that also resulted in them losing control of Religare and Fortis Healthcare.
They were also found guilty of siphoning and mismanagement of funds from Fortis Healthcare by law firm Luthra and Luthra in 2018.