Delhi Police Wednesday disputed in a court the claim of former Fortis Healthcare promoter Malvinder Singh, arrested for alleged misappropriation of funds at Religare Finvest Ltd, that he paid back the money to the entities concerned and said the money was still with RFL's holding company, RHC, controlled by him.
The submission was made before Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Gurmohina Kaur during arguments on the bail plea moved by Malvinder in the case lodged by the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of Delhi Police.
The court has put up the mater for further hearing on February 14.
The counsel for the police claimed that loans were disbursed to shell companies known to the promoters and the ultimate beneficiary was Religare Holding Company (RHC), of which Malvinder Singh and his brother Shivinder are promoters.
The siphoned off money was still with RHC, though it may not be in Malvinder's bank accounts, the counsel said.
Advocate Mohit Mathur, appearing for complainant Manpreet Suri of RFL, said that Malvinder as one of the promoters of RHC had siphoned off money that came the company.
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Malvinder had earlier told the court that he has paid back the money to the entities concerned.
Advocate Manu Sharma, appearing for Singh, had said that the EOW "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 said 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.
"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.
RFL owes money to RHC, Sharma said.
Malvinder (46); Shivinder, 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 Suri, had earlier told the court that loans were disbursed to shell companies known to the promoters and the ultimate beneficiary was RHC Holding company.
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.