Court issues production warrant for Singh brothers for settlement talks

New Delhi: A Delhi court Tuesday issued production warrant against former Fortis Healthcare promoters Malvinder Singh and his brother Shivinder, arrested for allegedly misappropriating funds of Religare Finvest Ltd (RFL), for settlement talks on Wednesday.

Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Deepak Sherawat issued the orders during the hearing of interim bail applications of the Singh brothers.

Malvinder and Shivinder, who were arrested by the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the Delhi Police on October 11 and October 10 respectively, have sought interim bail from the court on October 18 saying they wanted to settle the case with the complainant.

Advocate D P Singh, appearing for Shivinder, told the court that that this was not a common settlement and it should not be seen in terms of only "giving money".

"It's not a common settlement. It should not be seen lightly. Each party has a different role in the case. This settlement should not be seen in terms of only giving money. There are various types of settlement. It is not the kind we see in common variance of the law. It could have different connotations for different accused in the case," he said.

He further said that the EOW, which has arrested the accused, was not a party to the settlement.

Advocate Manu Sharma, counsel for Malvinder, told the court that the settlement talks which were supposed to be held on Tuesday could not be conducted as the accused could not be brought to court.

"There has been some procedural snag. If deemed proper, we can meet tomorrow to discuss the settlement," he said.

The court has put up the matter on October 24 for hearing arguments on the interim bail application.

Senior advocate Vikas Pahwa, appearing for RFL's Manpreet Singh Suri who is the complainant, had earlier said he wanted the proposal for settlement in writing.

The court had on October 17 sent Singh brothers and other accused -- Sunil Godhwani, Kavi Arora and Anil Saxena -- to judicial custody till October 31.

The EOW had told the court that the Singh brothers have disclosed that an amount of about Rs 1,000 crore has been transferred to various persons from the entities linked to corporate loan book which was then allegedly siphoned off.

Malvinder (46), Shivinder (44), Godhwani (58), Arora (48) and Saxena, were arrested by the EOW for allegedly diverting the money and investing in other companies.