NEW DELHI: The Fortis family feud on Monday saw serious allegations leveled against Malvinder Singh by brother Shivinder Singh, both former promoters of the healthcare firm, at the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT). Shivinder’s petition alleges that Malvinder forged his wife’s signature, carried out illegal financial transactions which led the company into an unsustainable debt trap.
Malvinder has been named along with former chairman of Religare Enterprises Ltd Sunil Godhwani of putting the company in a debt trap and acting prejudicially to the interest of its creditors and shareholders.
In the petition, Malvinder is alleged to have forged the signatures of Shivinder’s wife Aditi Singh in the documents of RHC Holdings Pvt Ltd, which along with Oscar Investments Ltd jointly owned financial services firm Religare Enterprises Ltd and hospital chain Fortis Healthcare Ltd.
“Aditi Singh merely held the post of managing director on paper and had no role to play in the day to day workings of the company...has always been a homemaker who played no part in the functioning of RHC Holdings,” Shivinder alleged, adding that there were also instances of Aditi being shown as present for a board meeting when she was in fact abroad.
“A resolution of the board of the company dated September 25, 2014, demonstrates the presence of petitioner No 3 in the board meeting, while in fact she was out of the country from September 24, 2014, till September 28, 2014... ” the petition said.
Shivinder further said that Malvinder and Godhwani used their respective positions to “perpetrate or cause others to perpetrate illegal financial transactions and various acts of mismanagement by and through RHC, leading to massive losses to RHC and its subsidiaries, and a depletion of the wealth”.
Likely to come up on Thursday, the petition seeks restitution of the “undue gains made by themselves (Malvinder and Godhwani) which led to losses being suffered by the petitioners and RHC Holdings”. It also asked the NCLT to declare that Malvinder and Godhwani caused grave prejudice to the interest of the company.
Shivinder has also petitioned NCLT to direct Malvinder and Godhwani to “restitute and restore the wealth of RHC Holdings which got eroded due to their unlawful actions” and disclose “their assets, bank accounts and net worth”.