E-Paper
ED arrests Shivinder Mohan Singh in RFL money laundering case
Shivinder Mohan Singh was arrested by the Delhi police in October. Nitesh Rana, ED’s special prosecutor, approached a Saket court on Thursday for a production warrant after the investigating officer of the agency put Singh under arrest in Tihar.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Thursday arrested former Fortis Healthcare promoter – Shivinder Mohan Singh inside Tihar jail in its money laundering probe related to Religare Finvest Ltd, an official told HT. He will be produced before a court on Friday.
Shivinder Mohan Singh was arrested by the Delhi police in October. Nitesh Rana, ED’s special prosecutor, approached a Saket court on Thursday for a production warrant after the investigating officer of the agency put Singh under arrest in Tihar.
The ED has alleged that the brothers – Shivinder and Malvinder Mohan Singh engaged in systematic evergreening of loans in a manner that the loans were not categorized by the banks as NPAs (non-performing assets).
The agency last month informed a court while seeking Malvinder Singh’s custody that between 2006-07 and 2017-18, on the instructions of Sunil Godhwani (Ex-CMD of Religare Enterprises), RFL or entities known to Singh brothers transferred unsecured loans worth ₹2,397 crore in the companies owned and controlled by their longtime associate – Narendra Kumar Ghoshal.
At least 5 out of 22 companies which received these loans “were introduced by Ghoshal and his close associates” and they defaulted to the tune of ₹477.40 crore, the ED states.
Shivinder Singh, Malvinder Singh, Sunil Godhwani, former Religare Finvest MD Kavi Arora and former Religare Group CFO Sunil Saxena were arrested by Delhi Police in the second week of October.
The Enforcement Directorate arrested Malvinder Singh and Godhwani last month.
It has been alleged that the Singh brothers caused RFL to give unsecured, high value purported loans to their shell companies and related/known entities. The loans were allegedly given by the employees and management of RFL under the directions of the management team of RFL led by Sunil Godhwani (ex-CMD of Religare Enterprises Ltd). They were used to repay earlier loans taken by entities associated with promoters under CLB (corporate law book). It was revealed that there was systematic evergreening of loans such that new loans were given at regular intervals so that existing loans could be repaid within the prescribed period so as to avoid categorization as NPAs of those existing entities, the ED has claimed.
Shivinder Singh’s lawyer could not be located.
Malvinder Singh’s lawyer told HT – “There is no case. The ED has not been able to establish any proceeds of crime yet.”
