Former Fortis promoter held in Rs 2,397 cr fraud case
New Delhi: The Delhi police on Thursday arrested former Fortis Healthcare promoter Shivinder Mohan Singh and three others in an alleged fraud case of disbursal of loans and causing losses to Religare Finvest Limited to the tune of Rs 2,397 crore, officials said.
Kavi Arora (48), Sunil Godhwani (58), and Anil Saxena (51) were also arrested by the Economic Offence Wing (EOW) of the Delhi police for allegedly diverting public money and investing in other companies, they said.
A complaint was filed by Manpreet Singh Suri of Religare Finvest Limited (RFL) against Malvinder Mohan Singh, Shivinder Mohan Singh (44), Sunil Godhwani, and others alleging that loans were taken by Singh while managing that firm but the money was invested in other companies, the police said. According to the police, the complainant stated that the alleged persons had absolute control on Religare Enterprises Limited (REL) and its subsidiaries.
“They put Religare Finvest Limited (RFL) in poor financial condition by way of disbursing loans to companies with no financial standing and controlled by the alleged persons,” said additional commissioner of police (EOW) OP Mishra.
“These companies wilfully defaulted in repayments and caused wrongful loss to RFL to the tune of Rs 2,397 crore,” the complaint said.
This was also pointed out and flagged during their independent audit by RBI and SEBI, said the senior officer.
The accused, Shivinder Mohan Singh, was the promoter of Religare Enterprises Ltd, which is the listed company with 85 per cent share holding of RFL, while accused Sunil Godhwani remained as the chairman and managing director of the same during the relevant period, the officer said. Kavi Arora and Anil Saxena also occupied important managerial positions in REL and RFL during the same time, the officer added.
“The accused systematically siphoned off and diverted money from the general public in a clandestine manner for their own benefit,” the police said, adding that further investigation of the case is in progress. Shivinder’s brother Malvinder is absconding and a lookout circular has been issued against him.