Religare Finvest case: Delhi HC rejects Shivinder Mohan Singh’s bail order

The high court, while rejecting the bail order for Singh, said it is being done as his detention is necessary “not only to unearth the conspiracy he hatched but also to trace the siphoned money he credited for his personal benefits.”

The Delhi high court on Monday rejected the trial court’s bail order for former Religare Enterprises promoter Shivinder Mohan Singh, in a bank fraud case pertaining to alleged misappropriation of funds at its subsidiary Religare Finvest Ltd (RFL).

Shivinder Singh, along with his brother Malvinder, was arrested in 2019 for allegedly diverting RLF’s money and investing it in other companies. (Mint Photo)

The high court, while rejecting the bail order for Singh, said it is being done as his detention is necessary “not only to unearth the conspiracy he hatched but also to trace the siphoned money he credited for his personal benefits.”

The decision taken by Justice Justice Suresh Kumar Kait came on the plea of RFL which challenged the March 3 order of the trial court granting bail to Shivinder in the case registered against him by the Delhi Police’s Economic Offences Wing (EOW) for cheating, criminal conspiracy and criminal breach of trust, according to news agency PTI.

Shivinder Singh, along with his brother Malvinder, was arrested in 2019 for allegedly diverting RLF’s money and investing it in other companies.

In March 2019, the EOW had filed a First Information Report (FIR) as it received a complaint from RFL’s authorised representative Manpreet Suri against Shivinder, former RFL CEO Kavi Arora and former CMD of Religar enterprises Sunil Godhwani.

Suri mentioned in his complaint that the above three accused put the company in poor financial condition by disbursing loans to other companies which had no financial standings and willfully defaulted in repayments which led to a wrongful loss of ₹2,397 crores to the company.

The Delhi high court, while allowing the company’s plea in the present case, said the nature and gravity of accusation against Shivinder is serious.

“The grant of bail in a case involving cheating, criminal breach of interest by an agent of such a large magnitude of money, affecting a very large number of people would also have an adverse impact not only on the progress of the case but also on the trust of the criminal justice system that people repose,” Justice Kait said.

Two days back, Religare enterprises said it had removed the Singh brothers from promoters and promoter group category on the company’s request.

(With agency inputs)