New Delhi, The Enforcement Directorate on Friday filed a chargesheet against former Ranbaxy owners, Malvinder Mohan Singh and Shivender Mohan Singh, in connection with the Religare Finvest fraud case.
The prosecution complaint filed before Additional Sessions Judge Sandeep Yadav, also named former CMD of Religare Enterprises Ltd (REL) Sunil Godhwani as an accused in the case.
Apart from the three person, the prosecution complaint also named RHC Holdings Pvt Ltd as accused.
The prosecution complaint, filed by the agency through Special Public Prosecutor Nitesh Rana, has accused the three of money laundering under sections 3 and 4 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.
The judge, after taking cognisance of the charge sheet, posted the matter for scrutiny of documents on January 20.
The court also issued production warrants against the three accused persons who are currently lodged in the Tihar Jail.
The accused had acquired proceeds of crime to the tune of Rs 150 crore through Star Artworks Pvt Ltd, derived out of criminal activities and utilised the amount in repayment of its existing liability towards RFL by projecting it as untainted, the agency said in its complaint.
Commenting on the development, Religare said that it is happy that the law has taken its course.
“We have learnt that the Enforcement Directorate(ED) has filed its charge sheet today and we are encouraged by this development, which brings to fruition, over 18 months of intensive effort and hard work of bringing to book, the perpetrators of the frauds,” the company said in a statement.
“It also vindicates our claim that the erstwhile promoters and Sunil Godhwani were at the helm of affairs when the frauds were committed and in fact, used the powers vested in them, to commit fraud by siphoning off money from REL and RFL through shell entities controlled by the brothers.”
It further said that Religare Finvest Ltd (RFL) has undergone a complete revamp of its Board of Directors and the new Board, comprising entirely of Independent Directors, hired a new management team to professionally manage the company.
The new management has since been striving to revive the company by resolving its asset liability mismatch and bringing the capital adequacy to desired regulatory levels, the Religare statement said, adding that the company is now professionally managed and run with good governance practices forming the bedrock.
“We are happy that the law has taken its own course. The focus of the new Board and management is to ensure that the ethos of good governance, ethics and accountability become the hallmark of the Religare Group,” the company statement quoted Rashmi Saluja, Executive Chairperson of Religare Enterprises Ltd as saying.
“All efforts continue to be made to rebuild the business, mobilise fresh capital and correct the transgression and legacy issues of the past. The management and internal controls at the Group and all subsidiaries’ level have also been revamped, bringing in much needed assurance to employees about a stable and action-oriented management,” she said.
