Singh Brothers ripped us off financially, Religare Enterprises to Delhi High Court

The plot in Japanese drugmaker Daiichi Sankyo’s execution plea against former Ranbaxy-Fortis promoters, Malvinder and Shivinder Singh seems to thicken with each proceeding before the Delhi High Court.

Religare Enterprises Limited, founded by the brothers, today alleged that when the Singhs were the part of the management of the company as Directors, they entered into several “sham transactions” with the company to rip them off of crores.

Senior Advocate P Chidambaram, appearing for Religare, submitted that the brothers siphoned off more than Rs 400 crore from the company by issuing Non-Convertible Redeemable Preference Shares (NCRPS) in their name and later redeeming them.

A Single Judge Bench of Justice Rajiv Shakdher was also informed that a complaint has been lodged against the brothers with the Securities Exchange Board of India (SEBI) and the Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO), and that the investigation is pending.

Recording that the Court “expects” Religare to file a police complaint with respect to the transaction, Justice Shakdhar directed the company to disclose on affidavit the names of the Directors who were in charge of the affairs and management of the company when the said sham transactions took place.

The Singh brothers had a public falling out earlier this year, with Shivinder blaming his elder brother for the fall of the Fortis empire. He then dragged Malvinder to the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT), accusing him of mismanagement and oppression, and sought to remove him from the management of RHC Holding Pvt Ltd. The case was withdrawn after their mother’s intervention.

On the night of December 6, Malvinder accused Shivinder of physically assaulting him. Referring to this video that surfaced the night before the hearing, Justice Shakdher chuckled,

“It is interesting that they always come one day before the scheduled hearing.”

On January 31 this year, Justice Jayant Nath of the Delhi high court had upheld the enforceability of a Rs 3500 crore arbitration award passed by a Singapore Tribunal.

The tribunal had found the Singh brothers and others guilty of several counts of misconduct when Daiichi bought their 34.82% stake for $2.4 billion in 2008. The Singh brothers and twelve others were found to have made false claims in a self-assessment report, along with misrepresenting the genesis, nature, and severity of the US regulatory investigations into Ranbaxy.

Daiichi Sankyo was represented by Senior Advocates Arvind Nigam and Arun Kathpalia.