Former Fortis Healthcare promoters Malvinder Singh, his brother Shivinder and three others have been sent to four-day police custody for allegedly misappropriating funds of Religare Finvest Ltd (RFL) and causing it losses of Rs 2,397 crore.
Malvinder Singh was arrested on Friday morning while Shivinder, Sunil Godhwani, the former chairman and managing director of Religare Enterprises, Kavi Arora and Anil Saxena, who occupied important positions in REL and RFL, were arrested on Thursday by the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of Delhi Police for allegedly diverting money and investing in other companies.
All the accused were produced before a Delhi court on Friday.
The Delhi Police had sought 6-day custody for all the five.All the accused were produced before Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Deepak Sherawat. The police told the court that their custodial interrogation was necessary as they were allegedly involved in the diversion of public money and needs to be tracked. It further said that a lot of people are involved in the alleged cheating and misappropriation of the fund.The counsel representing the accused opposed the Delhi police plea and said their custody was not required as the evidence is documentary.
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. He was detained on the intervening night of Thursday and Friday in Ludhiana and was formally arrested on Friday morning after he was brought here by the EOW team, Additional Commissioner of Police (EOW) O P Mishra earlier told reporters.
The EOW had registered an FIR in March after it received a complaint from Manpreet Singh Suri of the RFL 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 over REL and its subsidiaries.
(With PTI inputs)