Delhi Police’s Economic Offences Wing on Thursday arrested two ex-promoters of pharmaceutical giant Ranbaxy, Shivinder Singh and his elder brother Malvinder Singh, in a Rs. 740-crore fraud case. While Shivinder Singh was arrested in the evening, his brother was taken into custody in a late-night crackdown.
Religare Finvest, which is part of Religare Enterprises in which the brothers were once majority stakeholders, had accused both of them of misappropriation of funds and fraud to the tune of Rs. 740 crore. The Enforcement Directorate had raided both of them in August this year.
According to a report by news agency PTI, three more people have been arrested in connection with the case. They have been identified as Kavi Arora, Sunil Godhwani and Anil Saxena. Godhwani is the former chairman and managing director of Religare Finvest.
“RFL saw a change in management. When the new management took over, they found that a loan had been taken but the money been invested in other companies linked to Singh and his brother. They filed a complaint with the EOW and subsequently, an FIR was registered,” a senior police officer was quoted as saying.
The Singh brothers had inherited a multi-billion dollar Ranbaxy pharmaceuticals from their father but later sold the company to a Japanese firm Daiichi in 2008. The two shifted their attention to the family-owned Fortis hospitals and Religare Enterprise.
In 2013, Daiichi approached an arbitration tribunal in Singapore accusing the Singh brothers of withholding information while luring the Japanese company to buy Ranbaxy. The tribunal ordered the Singh brothers to pay Daiichi Rs. 2,562 crore. Malvinder and Shivinder Singh challenged the decision in the Delhi High Court, which too ruled in 2017 that they will have to to the Japanese firm.
This led to huge friction within the family as both resigned as directors from the board of Fortis. Last year, Shivinder had filed a case against his own brother alleging ‘oppression and mismanagement’ in their joint businesses namely RHC Holding, Religare and Fortis.