Ranbaxy ex-promoter Malvinder Singh held in ₹2,400 cr Religare fraud

Ludhiana. Former Fortis promoters Shivinder Mohan Singh and his elder brother Malvinder Mohan Singh were arrested from Ludhiana by Delhi police in a case of fraud along with three others on Thursday.

The accused, including the  Singh brothers, who are also ex-promoters of Ranbaxy, allegedly caused a loss of Rs 2,390 crore to Religare Finvest, said officials.

While Shivinder, 44, along with his alleged accomplices Kavi Arora, 48, Sunil Godwani, 58, and Anil Saxena, 51, was arrested during the day, Malvinder was arrested late in the night by a team of economic offences wing of Delhi Police from Ludhiana.

“We are getting him to Delhi,” a senior police official was quoted as saying by Mint.

A first information report (FIR) was registered against Shivinder, Malvinder, Godwani, and others on a complaint by a representative of Religare Finvest.

“The alleged persons having absolute control on Religare Enterprises Limited (REL) and its subsidiaries put Religare Finvest Limited (RFL) in poor financial condition by way of disbursing loans to companies having no financial standing and caused wrongful loss to RFL to the tune of Rs 2,397 crore. This was also pointed out and flagged during their independent audits by RBI and SEBI,” OP Mishra, additional commissioner of police of the economic offences wing, said.

Mishra said Shivinder was the promoter of Religare Enterprises, which is the listed company having 85% shareholding in RFL, while Godwani was the chairman and managing director of REL when they allegedly committed the fraud.

“They systematically siphoned off and diverted money of the general public in a clandestine manner for their own benefit,” he said.

The four were arrested at the Mandir Marg office of the economic offences wing where they were summoned by the investigating officer to join the probe on Thursday afternoon.

They will be produced before a city magistrate on Friday.

According to a copy of the FIR, accessed by Hindustan Times, the RFL representative filed a complaint with the Delhi police on December 18 last year.

After three months of preliminary investigation, police registered an FIR on March 27 under sections of criminal breach of trust, cheating and criminal conspiracy.