SC notice to Delhi Police on ex-Fortis Healthcare promoter's plea against bail cancellation

The Supreme Court on Friday issued notice to the Delhi Police on a plea of former Fortis Healthcare promoter Shivinder Mohan Singh challenging the June 14 order of the Delhi High Court which cancelled his bail granted to him by the trial court in a money laundering case.

A Bench headed by Chief Justice of India NV Ramana asked Delhi Police how much time it needed to complete the probe in the case in which Shivinder Singh is accused of allegedly misappropriating about Rs 2,400 crore from Religare Finvest Ltd (RFL) fund.

The Bench said, "How much time does it take to complete the probe in a criminal case? The accused cannot be kept in jail without trial."

Senior advocate Sidharth Luthra, appearing for Singh, told the Bench that the accused has been in jail since October 2019 and the charges are still to be framed.

During the hearing, the Bench observed that the case against Singh in a money laundering case is "very serious".

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, 2019 order of the trial court granting bail to Singh in the case registered against him by the Economic Offences Wing (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.

( With inputs from ANI )