Ex-Religare CEO Krishnan Subramanian arrested for defrauding Rs 2,300 crore

New Delhi: The Delhi Police's Economic Offences Wing (EOW) has arrested the former CEO of Religare Enterprises Limited, Krishnan Subramanian in connection with the theft of nearly Rs 2,300 crore from the government.

The EOW said in a statement that Religare Finvest Ltd (RFL) AR Manpreet Singh Suri had filed a complaint against Malvinder Mohan Singh, Shivinder Mohan Singh, Sunil Godhwani, and others who held key managerial positions. The complainant claimed that people in positions of full control over Religare Enterprises Limited (REL) and its subsidiaries harmed RFL by disbursing loans to entities with no financial footing.

RFL suffered a wrongful loss of Rs 2397 crores as a result of these entities' deliberate default on repayments. This was also pointed out and identified by RBI and SEBI during their independent audit, according to the statement.

During the 2017-18 fiscal year, Krishnan Subramanian served as the group's CEO. A secured loan of Rs 115 crores was sanctioned to three organisations — M/s Best Health Management Pvt Ltd, M/s Vitoba Realtors Pvt Ltd, and Devera Developers Pvt Ltd — via three different loan facility agreements, with property papers of Asola land held as collateral with RFL.

As title deeds for these lands were never filed to RFL, these loans were converted to unsecured debts under the corporate loan book portfolio, according to the statement.

Later, it was discovered that the land held as security with RFL under the facility agreements had been swapped without RFL's authorization or knowledge, despite the fact that the land had been mortgaged with RFL.

The property documents were also discovered to have been delivered to the borrower following the execution of a share pledging agreement with RHC and Elive on January 10, 2018. Elive shares were pledged, and trade mark certificates for the Religare brand were placed with RFL under the terms of the agreement. Krishnan Subramanian signed the SPA and then released the property paperwork, according to the statement.

A case was opened after a preliminary inquiry, and the EOW took over the investigation. Malvinder Mohan Singh and Shivinder Mohan Singh, as well as three others in senior management roles, were already arrested and charged due to substantial incriminating evidence.