A Delhi court Tuesday issued production warrant against former Fortis Healthcare promoters Malvinder Singh and his brother Shivinder, arrested for allegedly misappropriating funds of Religare Finvest Ltd (RFL), for settlement talks on Wednesday.
Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Deepak Sherawat issued the orders during the hearing of interim bail applications of the Singh brothers.
Malvinder and Shivinder, who were arrested by the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the Delhi Police on October 11 and October 10 respectively, have sought interim bail from the court on October 18 saying they wanted to settle the case with the complainant.
Advocate D P Singh, appearing for Shivinder, told the court that this was not a common settlement and it should not be seen in terms of only "giving money".
"It's not a common settlement. It should not be seen lightly. Each party has a different role in the case. This settlement should not be seen in terms of only giving money. There are various types of settlement. It is not the kind we see in the common variance of the law. It could have different connotations for different accused in the case," he said.
He further said that the EOW, which has arrested the accused, was not a party to the settlement.
Advocate Manu Sharma, counsel for Malvinder, told the court that the settlement talks which were supposed to be held on Tuesday could not be conducted as the accused could not be brought to court.
"There have been some procedural snag. If deemed proper, we can meet tomorrow to discuss the settlement," he said.
The court has put up the matter on October 24 for hearing arguments on the interim bail application.
Senior advocate Vikas Pahwa, appearing for RFL's Manpreet Singh Suri who is the complainant, had earlier said he wanted the proposal for settlement in writing.
The court had on October 17 sent Singh brothers and other accused -- Sunil Godhwani, Kavi Arora and Anil Saxena -- to judicial custody till October 31.
The EOW had told the court that the Singh brothers have disclosed that an amount of about Rs. 1,000 crore has been transferred to various persons from the entities linked to corporate loan book which was then allegedly siphoned off.
Malvinder (46), Shivinder (44), Godhwani (58), Arora (48) and Saxena, were arrested by the EOW for allegedly diverting the money and investing in other companies.
The EOW had registered an FIR in March after it received a complaint from Suri against Shivinder, Godhwani and others alleging that loans were taken by them while managing the firm but the money was invested in other companies.
Religare has accused them of diverting funds, claiming that loans were taken by Shivinder while managing the firm but the money was invested in other companies.
The police had said that the accused have to be confronted with other officials to ascertain the role of co-conspirators and said that the money trail was to be found in the case which was at an initial stage of probe.
The counsel for Malvinder had earlier told the court that the money was with Radha Soami head Gurinder Singh Dhillon but the police was not going after him since he had political connections and that Malvinder was being made a soft target.
RFL is a subsidiary of the REL. Malvinder and Shivinder were earlier the promoters of REL.
The police had said that a lookout circular (LOC) had been issued against Malvinder as he was absconding earlier.
The EOW had registered an FIR in March after it received a complaint from Suri against Shivinder, Godhwani and others alleging that loans were taken by them while managing the firm but the money was invested in other companies.
According to the police, the complainant stated that the four 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 Rs. 2,397 crore," police had alleged.
