Ex-Religare CEO held for siphoning off Rs 2,397 cr public money

New Delhi, Dec 9 (IANS) The Economic Offences Wing of Delhi Police has arrested the former CEO of Religare Enterprises Limited (REL), Krishnan Subramanian, for siphoning off public money to the tune of Rs 2,397 crore, an official said on Thursday.

According to the official, Manpreet Singh Suri, a representative of Religare Finvest Ltd (RFL), had filed a complaint against Malvinder Singh, Shivinder Singh, Sunil Godhwani and others holding key managerial posts, alleging that having absolute control over Religare Enterprises Limited and its subsidiaries, these persons put Religare Finvest Limited (RFL) in poor financial condition by way of disbursing loans to companies having no financial standings.

In view of the sufficient incriminating evidence on record, Malvinder and Shivinder, along with three others holding key managerial positions in RFL, have already been arrested and charge-sheeted.

"These companies willfully defaulted in repayments and caused wrongful loss to RFL to the tune of Rs 2,397 crore. This was also pointed out and flagged during the independent audit by the RBI and SEBI," said R.K. Singh, Additional Commissioner of Police, Economic Offences Wing.

The accused, Krishnan Subramanian, was the Group CEO during 2017-18 when loan against a property worth Rs 115 crore was sanctioned as secured loans to three entities vide three separate loan facility agreements, and property documents of Asola land was kept as security with RFL.

Subsequently, these loans were converted to unsecured loans under the corporate loan book portfolio as title deeds of these lands were never submitted to RFL. Later on, it was found that the land which was kept as security with RFL under the above said facility agreements had been exchanged without any permission or intimation to RFL, even though the same was mortgaged with RFL.

The police said it was also found that the property documents were released to the borrower after execution of share pledge agreement (SPA) with RHC and Elive under which the shares of Elive were pledged and the trademark certificates with respect to Religare brand were deposited with RFL. The said SPA and subsequent release of property papers were done by Subramanian.

The Delhi Police constituted a team and apprehended Subramanian on Wednesday.

"Later he was produced in court and further probe is on," the police added.