Religare case: Delhi HC grants bail to ex-CEO Maninder Singh

New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Wednesday granted bail to former CEO of Religare Enterprises Limited (REL) Maninder Singh in a case related to alleged siphoning of money to the tune of Rs 2,397 crore from Religare Finvest Limited (RFL).

Justice Yogesh Khanna granted bail to the accused on a personal bond of Rs one lakh with surety of like amount and imposed various conditions on him.

The court directed the accused to not leave the national capital without prior permission of it and not contact any employee of REL, RFL or any of the Religare group of companies.

Singh was arrested on October 27, 2020 for allegedly conspiring with other accused persons and swindling Rs 2,397 crore, thereby causing wrongful loss to complainant Religare Finvest limited (RFL) and wrongful gain to themselves.

Former Fortis Healthcare promoters Malvinder Mohan Singh and his brother Shivinder Mohan Singh, former CMD of Religare Enterprises Limited (REL) Sunil Godhwani and former CEO of RFL Kavi Arora were arrested in the case in 2019, for allegedly diverting RFL's money and investing in other companies.

RFL is a group firm of REL, which was earlier promoted by Malvinder and Shivinder.

The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of Delhi Police registered an FIR in March 2019 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. ED lodged a money laundering case

based on this.

According to the prosecution, RFL's authorised representative Manpreet Suri alleged that these accused put RFL in poor financial condition by disbursing loans to entities having no financial standings and willfully defaulted in repayments thereby caused wrongful loss to RFL to the tune of Rs 2,397 crores.