Ex-Ranbaxy promoters Malvinder, Shivinder Singh arrested

Former promoters of pharmaceutical giant Ranbaxy, Shivinder Singh and his elder brother Malvinder Singh, have been arrested in a ₹740 crore fraud case, sources said.

According to sources, Shivinder was arrested on Thursday evening while Malvinder was arrested late at night, after a lookout notice was issued against him.

The brothers have been accused by Religare Finvest of fraud and misappropriation involving around ₹740 crore.

Former Religare CMD Sunil Godhwani and two others -- Kavi Arora and Anil Saxena -- were also arrested in the matter.

In December last year, Religare Finvest had filed complaint against Malvinder Singh and Shivinder Singh. In May, both were charged with cheating, fraud and misappropriation of funds.

In a statement post the arrests, the Economic Offence Wing (EOW) of Delhi Police said that Manpreet Singh Suri of Religare Finvest Ltd (RFL) had levelled allegations against the Singh brothers, among others.

"The alleged persons having absolute control on Religare Enterprises Ltd and its subsidiaries put Religare Finvest in poor financial condition by way of disbursing the loans to companies having no financial standing and controlled by the alleged persons," the statement said.

These companies willfully defaulted in repayment and caused wrongful loss to Religare Finvest to the tune of ₹2,397 crore, which was also pointed out and flagged during independent audits by the Reserve Bank of India and the Securities and Exchange Board of India, it said.

Shivinder Singh was the promoter of Religare Enterprises Ltd, which is the listed company having 85 per cent share holding of Religare Finvest, while Godhwani remained CMD of Religare Enterprises during the period concerned. Arora and Saxena also occupied important managerial position in Religare Enterprises and Religare Finvest during the same time.

In August, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) searched their residences on charges of money laundering. The raids took place after a case was filed against the brothers under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

Also, in April, the Supreme Court threatened to jail the two former promoters of Ranbaxy, for not complying with an order to pay dues to Japanese firm Daiichi Sankyo.

"We will go into the issue... why you violated our orders. We will send you to jail," the apex court had said.The court was hearing a petition filed by Daiichi Sankyo, which is seeking to recover ₹3,500 crore awarded to it in an arbitration case by a Singapore tribunal from the brothers.