NEW DELHI: Former Fortis Healthcare promoter Malvinder Singh, arrested in a case related to alleged misappropriation of funds at Religare Finvest Ltd (RFL), told a Delhi court Tuesday he has paid back the money to the entities concerned.
The submission was made before Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Gurmohina Kaur during the hearing of arguments on the bail plea moved by Singh in the case lodged by the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of Delhi Police.
The court has put up the matter for further hearing on February 6.
Advocate Manu Sharma, appearing for Singh, further said that the probe agency "cherry picked" him because of his affiliation with the family of spiritual head of the Radha Soami Satsang Gurinder Singh Dhillon, who allegedly conspired with other co-accused in the case in carrying out financial fraud.
He added Singh, who is in judicial custody, claimed that he has paid back the alleged laundered money to 14 entities through which he had received it.
"The probe agency is not investigating the Dhillon family. Singh has paid the money back to 14 entities. The probe agency need to investigate why the money has not been paid back to Religare yet," the counsel said.
Also the promoter does not have any direct shareholding with any of these entities. If these entities do not return the money to RFL, it is not his fault. The money has come back. The probe agency chose not to look into it," he said.
Sharma added RFL owes money to Religare Holding Company (RHC), of which Malvinder Singh and his brother Shivinder are promoters.
"Singh is trying to recover the money that others owe to him. RFL owes money to RHC...Also, the police have not brought on record the increase in the ledger of the money.
They are not doing a fair investigation. Further, he has gone abroad several times during the investigation of the case and has returned.
The probe agency's apprehension that he may flee the country does not hold ground," the counsel said.
He added that the FIR had stated that Rs 2,400 crore was allegedly laundered by the Singh brothers but their charge sheet states that there was a financial fraud of Rs 1,260 crore.
"The probe agency should look into the total of Rs 4,200 crore scam which has come to light. It should take into account all the funds that have been allegedly misappropriated in the case," he said.
Singh's brother Malvinder (46), also a former Fortis Healthcare promoter, former CMD of Religare Enterprises Ltd (REL) Sunil Godhwani (58), former CEO of REL Kavi Arora (48) and former CFO of RFL Anil Saxena were arrested by the EOW for allegedly diverting RFL's money and investing in other companies.
Senior advocate Nidhesh Gupta, appearing for the complainant RFL, had earlier told the court that loans were disbursed to shell companies known to the promoters and the ultimate beneficiary was RHC Holding company, of which Shivinder was a shareholder.
He had further claimed that unsecured loans had been given to shell entities without any due diligence as they were known to the promoters.
Gupta had alleged that documents showed the involvement of Shivinder in disbursal of unsecured loans to the shell companies which were further diverted to other companies and other co-accused Malvinder resulting in huge amount of public money being mis-appropriated.
RFL is a group firm of REL - Religare Enterprises Ltd, which was earlier promoted by Malvinder and his brother Shivinder.
The EOW registered an FIR in March last year after it received a complaint from RFL's Manpreet Suri against Shivinder, Godhwani and others, alleging that loans were taken by them while managing the firm but the money was invested in other companies.
"They put RFL in a poor financial condition by disbursing loans to companies with no financial standing and controlled by them.
The companies to which the loans were disbursed willfully defaulted in repayments and caused a loss to RFL to the tune of Rs 2,397 crore," the police had alleged.