Today Justice Anup Jairam Bhambhani allowed the bail application of Dr. Shivinder Mohan Singh who is in judicial custody in complaint case Report No. ECIR/05/DLZO-II/2019 dated 24.07.2019 registered under sections 3/4 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act 2002 by the Directorate of Enforcement.
The court directed to release Dr. Shivinder Mohan Singh on following broad terms:
The applicant shall furnish a personal bond in the sum of INR 1,00,00,000/- (INR One Crore Only) with 2 sureties of INR 25,00,000/- (INR Twenty-five Lacs Only) each from two family members, to the satisfaction of the Designated/Special Court and surrender his passport.
The applicant shall not leave the country without permission of the Designated/Special Court and shall ordinarily reside in his place of residence as per prison records and furnish to the Investigating Officer a cell phone number on which the applicant may be contacted at any time.
The applicant shall cooperate in any further investigation, as and when required and shall not, directly or indirectly, contact nor visit nor offer any inducement, threat or promise to any of the prosecution witnesses. The applicant shall not tamper with evidence nor otherwise indulge in any act or omission that is unlawful or that would prejudice the proceedings in the matter.
In this matter there are four accused: Malvinder Mohan Singh (applicant’s brother), Shivinder Mohan Singh (the applicant), Sunil Godhwani and M/s RHC Holding Pvt. Ltd. and the ED’s allegation is that the applicant is stated to be a 50% shareholder and one of the promoters of one M/s RHC Holding Pvt. Ltd. (‘RHC’, for short), which company along with the applicant and other associate entities in-turn is said to have held about 50% shareholding of one M/s Religare Enterprises Ltd. (‘REL’, for short) as on 31.03.2016.
M/s Religare Finvest Ltd. (‘RFL’, for short) is a non-banking financial company (NBFC) recognised by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and is stated to be engaged in the business of providing loan facilities to small and medium enterprises. RFL is stated to be a subsidiary of REL, with REL holding 99.99% equity shares of RFL till 2015-16. In 2016-17, the equity shareholding of REL in RFL was reduced to 72.28% and subsequently in 2017-18, increased to 85.63% and remained at same level till 2018-19, between 2008 and 2016, RFL extended loan and other financial facilities to various entities to the tune of about INR 47,000 crores, of which a sum of around INR 2036.39 crores went into default; and the allegation is that this amount was given by RFL to entities which were, directly or indirectly, owned or controlled by the applicant, or in which the applicant otherwise had financial interest, including companies linked to RHC.
India Legal Bureau