Khushi Bajpai
Published on: September 23, 2022 at 19:58 IST
Malvinder Singh and Shivinder Singh, the former promoters of Ranbaxy, were today condemned to 6 months in prison and told to pay fines of Rs. 5000 each within a period of 4 weeks by a Supreme Court bench made up of Chief Judge U.U. Lalit, Indira Banerjee, and Justice K.M. Joseph.
The bench further stated that if the defendants do not pay the money, they will face additional incarceration.
In addition, the court ordered the high court to consider hiring forensic auditors to examine the transactions of the notice banks and financial institutions entered into and see whether they were Bonafide.
The court further ordered that the executing court may also take into account issuing the proper processes and assigning forensic auditors to investigate the transactions made between FHL and RHC as well as other connected transactions.
The court further ordered that all assets offered by the contemnors in an effort to partially absolve themselves of contempt, including the money deposited in the register, the shares that are still held by the notice banks and financial institutions, and all other assets, be made available to the executing court and be subject to any orders that it may deem appropriate to issue.
The numerous instructions are contained in a case that Japanese Pharmaceutical Manufacturer Daiichi Sankyo filed.
The Singh brothers had disobeyed the Supreme Court’s order of status quo and transferred and converted valuable assets merely to deny Daiichi Sankyo’s rights, which was in violation of the court’s order prohibiting them from selling their shares in FHL.
The Singh brothers’ sale of their majority shares in Fortis Group, according to the Japanese Pharmaceutical Company, put the execution of their Arbitral Award in peril.