Singh brothers, Godhwani to be produced in Saket court today; police to seek judicial remand

A day after former Religare promoters Malvinder Singh and Shivinder Singh, former Religare CMD Sunil Godhwani and two others -- Kavi Arora and Anil Saxena -- were arrested on charges of fund misappropriation, Delhi Police's Economic Offences Wing (EoW) has said all the accused are in custody and will be produced in the Saket court at 12 pm today. The police will seek their judicial remand. The Enforcement Directorate is also likely to file a case in the matter. All of those have been accused of siphoning off public's money.

While Kavi Arora was the former Religare Finvest MD, Anil Saxena worked as the Religare Group CFO in the past.

Meanwhile, Malvinder Singh has moved the Delhi High Court, seeking quashing of the FIR. In his plea, he said the EOW lacks jurisdiction to register an FIR or conduct investigation.

The Delhi Police on Thursday arrested Shivinder and Godhwani from Delhi. Shivinder's elder brother Malvinder was later arrested from Ludhiana. "The alleged persons, having absolute control of Religare Enterprises Ltd and its subsidiaries, put Religare Finvest Ltd in poor financial condition by way of disbursing loans to the companies having no financial standing and controlled by the alleged persons," a Delhi Police statement says.

The police action comes after a fund diversion complaint filed by Manpreet Singh Suri of Religare Finvest, which is the lending entity of Religare Enterprises, against Malvinder, Shivinder, Godhwani and others. "The alleged persons systematically siphoned off and diverted general public's money in a clandestine manner for their benefit," the statement adds.

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Police say the companies in question willfully defaulted on repayments and caused wrongful losses to RFL (Religare Finvest Ltd) to the tune of Rs 2,397 crore. "This was also pointed out and flagged during their independent audit by RBI and SEBI," the statement said.

Delhi Police had last month lodged an FIR against Lakshmi Vilas Bank (LVB) directors, board members, Shivinder, Malvinder and Godhwani on charges of "cheating and criminal conspiracy" to the tune of Rs 740 crore.

Religare Enterprises Ltd was controlled by Malvinder and Shivinder until February 2018. Post their exit on February 14, 2018, the REL and RFL boards were re-constituted.

REL had earlier said the new board, during an independent forensic audit, discovered that one of the major reasons for RFL's terrible financial condition "was the misappropriation by LVB of monies due to RFL on account of four fixed deposits worth Rs 791 crore (including interest incurred on principal amount of Rs 750 crore)". This misappropriation caused a massive unlawful loss to RFL, it said.

Religare's complaint to Delhi police said the company suffered heavy losses due to wilful default on major unsecured loans. These loans were defined for internal purposes "as corporate loan book by borrower entities either related, controlled or associated with the promoters", and were given at non-arms-length basis, which is a violation of NBFC and RBI rules.

Edited by Manoj Sharma

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