Delhi court rejects bail plea of former Religare CEO Maninder Singh

Delhi's Saket Court on Thursday rejected the bail plea of former top official of Religare Enterprises Limited (REL) Mnder Singh in a case related to alleged siphoning of Rs 2,397 crore.

The court noted that the accused in conspiracy with other accused persons swindled money and caused wrongful loss to the complainant and gain to themselves.

While passing the order, Additional Sessions Judge Sandeep Yadav noted that "I find substance in the contention of Senior Advocate Mohit Mathur, appeared for the complainant that triple test ipso facto will not entitle the applicant/accused to bail as severity and magnitude of offence is a factor which has to be taken into consideration by the Court while deciding bail application."

Advocate Tanvir Ahmed Mir appeared for Mnder Singh submitted that accused was arrested on October 27, 2020.

"At the time when the accused was arrested, entire evidence stood crystallized and is in the possession of Investigating Officer and hence, the arrest of accused was not justified. Custody of accused was not needed for ten months from the date of filing of charge sheet and there is no reason as to why the accused is arrested at this stage," he said.

As per the police reply, the accused is drawing huge salary and benefits in the capacity of Chief Business Officer and group CEO of REL and thus, the applicant/accused cannot contend that he is not beneficiary to a single rupee.

According to the public prosecutor, the investigation revealed that accused Mnder Singh was well aware that the entities to whom loans worth hundreds of crores were extended were not credit-worthy but he kept on approving loans since these entities were linked to promoters.

It was also revealed during investigation that accused Mnder Singh was allegedly involved in sanctioning and disbursal of loans to 13 entitles alongwith co-accused Kavi Arora.

Former Fortis Healthcare promoters Malvinder Singh, his brother Shivinder Singh, former CMD of REL Sunil Godhw, Kavi Arora and l 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 compes.

The EOW registered an FIR in March last year after it received a complaint from RFL's Manpreet Suri against Shivinder, Godhw and others, alleging that loans were taken by them while managing the firm but the money was invested in other compes. ED is also probing and lodged a money laundering case in the matter.

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

( With inputs from ANI )

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