Three accused seek anticipatory bail in ₹74-crore pharma fraud case

The case stems from an escalating corporate dispute involving Emcure Pharmaceuticals, its subsidiary Zuventus Healthcare and rival firm Zorvia Healthcare over allegations of employee poaching, theft of confidential data and breach of non-compete agreements.

MUMBAI: Three accused in a ₹74-crore fraud case being probed by the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the Mumbai police moved the sessions court on Thursday seeking anticipatory bail.

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The case stems from an escalating corporate dispute involving Emcure Pharmaceuticals, its subsidiary Zuventus Healthcare and rival firm Zorvia Healthcare over allegations of employee poaching, theft of confidential data and breach of non-compete agreements.

The anticipatory bail pleas were filed by Chandrakant Vittal Shetty, a former stakeholder linked to Zuventus and director of Zorvia Healthcare, along with Anand Vittal Shetty and Reji Verghese, both associated with Zorvia.

Additional Sessions Judge YP Manathkar, while hearing the pleas, noted that the “allegations are serious” and observed that the FIR accused the applicants of cheating involving more than ₹74 crore.

Senior advocate Amit Desai, appearing for the accused, argued that the dispute was essentially commercial in nature and pointed out that related civil proceedings were already pending.

Opposing interim protection, advocate Ponda for the complainant argued that the accused had already sought similar relief before the Bombay High Court and could not simultaneously seek the same remedy before the sessions court.

The court said the rival submissions required detailed consideration, issued notice to the respondent and posted the matter for hearing on June 2.

The EOW case was registered on a complaint by Emcure Pharmaceuticals’ chief financial officer Tajuddin Sabir Shaikh, who alleged that former Zuventus stakeholders violated a shareholders’ agreement and floated rival firm Zorvia Healthcare in November 2025.

According to the complaint, the 2002 agreement contained non-compete and non-solicitation clauses barring stakeholders from engaging in competing businesses or poaching employees.

Emcure alleged that nearly 950 Zuventus employees from departments including HR, IT, legal, marketing and sales resigned between October and December 2025 and joined Zorvia, disrupting operations.

The complaint also alleged that confidential commercial data, product details, export information and research material were transferred to personal email accounts. A technical audit allegedly found that intellectual property and R&D data worth over ₹100 crore had been deleted or misused.

According to the FIR, Zuventus suffered a sales decline of ₹74.96 crore between October 2025 and March 2026, apart from monthly revenue losses of ₹7-10 crore due to the alleged employee exodus and data breach.

Zorvia has refuted the allegations, claiming the matter fundamentally concerned commercial and contractual disputes and the figure of ₹74 crore referred to in the FIR appeared to relate to alleged business or sales loss over a period of time and not to any identified fraudulent transfer or siphoning of monies. “Business performance over a six-month period may be influenced by several factors, including internal restructuring, management decisions and organisational changes,” it said in a statement emailed to Hindustan Times.

In its statement, Zorvia strongly disputed that there was any misuse of research and development material, intellectual property, proprietary formulations, or trade secrets. It said that it’s a pharmaceutical marketing company operating through recognised third-party manufacturing arrangements, which is a lawful and standard industry practice in the generic pharmaceutical sector.