SC rejects bail plea of former Fortis Healthcare promoter Shivinder Mohan Singh

The Supreme Court on Wednesday dismissed the interim bail plea of former Fortis Healthcare promoter Shivinder Mohan Singh in a money laundering case. 

Singh, along with others, is accused of misappropriating ₹2,397 crore of Religare Finvest Ltd (RFL) funds.

He had sought interim bail for a short period on “humanitarian grounds” for helping his ailing mother to take part in the last rituals of his maternal uncle, who died on 8 March.

However, taking note of "serious allegations", the court said that Singh is a "flight risk" while listening to submissions of senior lawyer Gopal Jain, appearing for the jailed accused, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta on behalf of Delhi Police, and senior advocate R Basant, representing the complainant in the case.

“We are of the opinion that the presence of the accused was not a must...,” said a bench of Justices MR Shah and BV Nagarathna while dismissing the plea.

It took note of the seriousness of the crime in which Singh is facing the charges and the pendency of another case of money laundering in which he was accused of paying a bribe to the tune of ₹200 crore to get bail.

Earlier, the apex court had asked the Economic Offence Wing (EOW) of Delhi Police to conclude a probe by 15 December last year in the case of misappropriating ₹2,397 crore of RFL funds.

The police had said that the investigation was at an advanced stage and sought time by the end of this month to complete the probe.

In May, the Delhi High Court cancelled Singh's bail, noting that his detention was necessary to unearth the conspiracy hatched by him" and trace the alleged siphoned off money.

The EOW recently said that it would need four more months to complete the probe in the fund embezzlement case.

"How much time should it take to complete the investigation? It cannot be an unending story," the bench had observed while asking the police to give a timeline for concluding the probe.

The counsel for Singh had said that he has been in jail for the last two years and his custody is not needed for the investigation as two charge sheets have already been filed.

Singh has moved the top court against the Delhi HC cancelling the bail granted to him by the trial court in the case.

The EOW registered an FIR in March 2019 after a complaint from Suri against Shivinder, former CMD of Religare Enterprises Limited (REL), Sunil Godhwani and former CEO of RFL Kavi Arora and others, alleging that loans were taken by them while managing the firm but the money was invested in other companies.

According to the prosecution, RFL's authorised representative Suri alleged that these accused put RFL in poor financial condition by disbursing loans to entities having no financial standing and wilfully defaulted on repayments, causing it a loss of ₹2,397 crore. 

With inputs from agencies.