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

Supreme Court of India. File Pic

The Supreme Court on Wednesday rejected the plea for interim bail of former Fortis Healthcare promoter Shivinder Mohan Singh who along with others is accused of misappropriating about Rs 2,400 crore of Religare Finvest Ltd funds.

A bench of Justices MR Shah and BV Nagarathna dismissed the plea of Singh who 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 March 8 in Haryana.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta appearing for Delhi police opposed the bail plea of Singh saying he is accused of a financial scam to the tune of Rs 2,400 crore and he is a flight risk.

"In terms of serious allegations, it seems that if the petitioner is released on interim bail he may be a flight risk, the application for interim bail stands rejected," the apex court ordered.

At the outset, the senior advocate Gopal Jain representing Singh said that his mother had suffered a stroke and he be granted bail on humanitarian grounds to be with her mother in the last rites of her brother.

Last year, the apex court had directed the Economic Offence Wing (EOW) of Delhi Police to conclude the probe by December 15, 2021 in the case against Singh.

The apex court has been seized of a plea of Singh who had challenged in the June 14, 2021 order of the Delhi High Court which cancelled his bail granted by the trial court in a money laundering case.

Earlier, the top court had asked the Delhi police about how much time it will take to complete the investigation and it cannot be an "unending story".

Justice Suresh Kait of the High Court had said that the Singh's detention was necessary to unearth the "conspiracy hatched by him and trace the siphoned off money".

The High Court order had come on the plea of RFL challenging the March 3 order of the trial court granting bail to Singh in the case registered against him by the EOW for cheating, criminal conspiracy and criminal breach of trust.

In March 2019, the EOW of Delhi Police registered an FIR after it received a complaint from RFL's Manpreet Suri against Singh, 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.

RFL's authorised representative Suri alleged that these accused put RFL in poor financial condition by disbursing loans to entities having no financial standings and willfully defaulted on repayments causing a loss of Rs 2,397 crore to RFL, as per EOW.

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