The Delhi Police's Economic Offences Wing (EoW) on Thursday arrested pharma major Ranbaxy's ex-promoter Shivinder Singh in a Rs 740 crore fraud case.
Former Religare CMD Sunil Godhwani and two others - Kavi Arora and Anil Saxena - were also arrested in the matter.
Police is reportedly also looking for Shivinder Singh's brother Malvinder Singh, who is named in the case too.
The duo has been accused by Religare Finvest of fraud and misappropriation of funds of around Rs 740 crore.
In a statement post the arrests, EoW said that Manpreet Singh Suri of Religare Finvest Ltd (RFL) leveled allegations against Malvinder Singh and Shivinder Singh 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 disbusing 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 Rs 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 mangerial postion in Religare Enterprises and Religare Finvest during the same time.
In December last year, Religare Finvest Ltd filed a criminal complaint with the EOW against the brothers. 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 Rs 3,500 crore awarded to it in an arbitration case by a Singapore tribunal from the brothers.
UPDATE:
While Shivinder Singh was arrested earlier in the evening, Malvinder Singh was arrested late at night after a lookout notice was put out against him.
The brothers were raided by the Enforcement Directorate in August.
They have been accused by Religare Finvest of fraud and misappropriation involving around Rs. 740 crore.
Religare Finvest filed its complaint with the police against the Singh brothers in December. Five months later, the brothers were charged with cheating, fraud and misappropriation of funds.
The Enforcement Directorate also initiated a money laundering case against them.
Shivinder Singh and Malvinder Singh were heirs to the multi-billion dollar Ranbaxy Laboratories founded by their father. They sold it to Japanese firm Daiichi Sankyo in 2008 and focused on the family-owned Fortis Healthcare, a hospital chain, and Religare Enterprises, a financial services firm.
