The Delhi High Court on Tuesday adjourned the hearing on the bail plea of former Religare promoter Malvinder Singh in a money laundering case related to alleged misappropriation of funds at Religare Finvest Ltd (RFL).
The matter was posted for further hearing on November 26 as Justice Anup Jairam Bhambani, who is hearing the matter, did not hold court on Tuesday.
The court had on November 6 decided to hear detailed arguments while refusing to issue a formal notice at this stage. The government financial watchdogs are represented by advocate Nitesh Rana while advocates Abhinav Mukherjee and Manu Sharma represent Malvinder Singh in the High Court. Malvinder is in judicial custody in a case related to the alleged siphoning of Rs 2,397 crore.
A Saket court had in August dismissed his bail plea and noted that “investigation, in this case, concluded that various companies whose directors or office-bearers were persons related to or associated with the accused were granted loans by RFL on the instructions of accused Malvinder Mohan Singh.
“It is, therefore, obvious that allegations against Malvinder Mohan Singh have been substantiated by cogent evidence collected during the investigation. It has been found during the investigation that entities either owned or associated with accused Malvinder were involved in systematic placement/layering acquisition and projection of proceeding of crime as untainted over a long period.
The trial court while dismissed his bail had said that keeping in view the severity of the offense and magnitude of the amount involved, there was a possibility of influencing witnesses by the accused.
Former Fortis Healthcare promoters Malvinder Singh, his brother Shivinder Singh, former REL CMD Sunil Godhwani, Kavi Arora, and Anil Saxena were arrested in the case by the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of Delhi Police last year, for allegedly diverting Religare Finvest Ltd’s money and investing in other companies.
The EOW registered an FIR in March last year on 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. The ED is also probing a money laundering case in the matter.
After the EOW FIR, the Enforcement Directorate swung into action as Sections 420/120-B of the IPC mentioned in FIR number 50/19 are scheduled offenses and accordingly recorded a case on July 24, 2019, to investigate the offense of money laundering under Section 3 of the Act.
During the ED investigation, Malvinder was arrested on November 15, 2019. Other accused persons were also arrested and voluminous evidence collected in the case.
