New Delhi [India], June 3 : Delhi's Saket Court on Saturday granted bail to Shivinder Mohan Singh, Indian businessman and erstwhile billionaire of Fortis Healthcare, Religare, and Ranbaxy Laboratories in Religare Finvest alleged scam case.
The Court of Prashant Mishra, Additional Sessions Judge granted bail to Shivinder Mohan Singh on a personal bond of Rs 10 Lakhs alongwith two sureties of like amount.
The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of Delhi Police registered an FIR in March 2019 against Shivinder Mohan Singh, and his brother Malvinder Mohan Singh among others, alleging misappropriation of funds, cheating, criminal conspiracy, criminal breach of trust and diversion of its funds to the tune of Rs 2,397 crores at the instance of the applicant and his brother under the corporate loan book (CLB) by misusing their position.
It was alleged that the brothers in conspiracy with other KMPs flouted corporate governance norms and facilitated the diversion of amounts to the entities linked with the applicant and his brother. They took loans while managing the firm but the said money was invested in other companies. Shivinder was arrested by the EOW on October 10, 2019. Shivinder and Malvinder are booked under sections 409,420,1220B of the Indian Penal Code.
Advocate Vijay Aggarwal and Adv Rhythm Aggarwal appearing for Shivender while arguing the bail application apprised the court that in January 2020, the Directorate of Enforcement (ED) registered a complaint against Shivinder, Malvinder and others.
In July 2020, Shivinder was granted bail in the ED matter by Delhi High Court. The said bail-granting judgment was upheld by the Supreme Court in April 2023.
Meanwhile, in the EOW case, Shivinder was initially granted bail in March 2021. However, Delhi High Court cancelled the bail granted to Shivinder in the EOW matter by the Trial Court in March 2021, stating that continued detention of Shivinder was imperative for unearthing the larger conspiracy, tracing siphoned-off money and that it is an economic offence of larger magnitude. EOW's main contention while opposing Shivinder's bail was that it is a fraud of large magnitude.
Aggarwal apprised the Court of subsequent events in order to show how the order passed by the Delhi High Court has lost its relevance and is no more binding on the Trial Court. Apart from dealing with the reasons given by the Delhi High Court at the time of cancellation of Shivinder's bail, Aggarwal further argued that Shivinder is liable to be enlarged on bail on the ground of parity in light of the bail granted in the ED matter and on the ground of bail granted to the co-accused persons.
Advocate Aggarwal also contended that tracing siphoned-off money is the task of the ED and not EOW. Shivinder had already been granted bail in the ED matter by Delhi High Court in July 2020. Furthermore, Adv Aggarwal argued that the jurisprudence on Bail matters clearly indicates that Economic offences cannot be classified separately for consideration of bail applications. Moreover, the investigation in the present matter is complete. Upon the conclusions of the arguments, Trial Court reserved the order for June 7, 2023.
The Court granted bail to Shivinder noting that the investigation in the present matter is complete, supplementary chargesheets are already filed, evidence is primarily documents based, material documents/evidence is already recovered and the applicant is in custody since October 10, 2019.
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