The Supreme Court Tuesday said it would hear on November 11 the bail plea of former Fortis Healthcare promoter Shivinder Mohan Singh who is accused of misappropriating ₹ 2,397 crore of Religare Finvest Ltd funds.
A bench comprising Chief Justice NV Ramana and Justices Surya Kant and Hima Kohli adjourned the hearing at the request of Delhi Police, represented by Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, and fixed the hearing on Thursday.
The top court, which wanted to remand the case to the Delhi High Court for re-adjudication on October 25, kept it for hearing before itself after the Economic Offence Wing of Delhi Police referred to the gravity of the offence.
“I do not want to make comments but the government (police) is taking much interest,” the CJI had orally observed.
Senior advocate Siddharth Luthra, appearing for Singh, referred to the records to allege that Delhi Police had on February 9, 2021 said that the probe with respect to Singh had concluded, but now they want four more months to investigate further.
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. Delhi Police’s Economic Offences Wing (EOW) recently gave the time line and 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 Mr Singh had said that he has been in jail for the last two years and moreover, his custody is not needed for the investigation as two charge sheets have already been filed.
Delhi Police has said it needs four more months to conclude the investigation if unforeseen circumstances do not hit the ongoing probe, the bench said after perusing the police report.
The high court order, cancelling the bail, was passed on a plea by Religare challenging the March 3 order of the trial court granting bail to Singh in the case registered against him by the EOW under charges of cheating, criminal conspiracy and criminal breach of trust.
Mr Singh has moved the top court against the Delhi High Court 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 RFL’s Manpreet 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.
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