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Shivinder Singh Sues Brother Malvinder, Breaks Business Partnership

Shivinder Singh parts ways with Malvinder Singh, blames him for financial difficulties.

Malvinder Singh (right) and Shivinder Singh. (Image: BloombergQuint)
Malvinder Singh (right) and Shivinder Singh. (Image: BloombergQuint)

Shivinder Singh has filed a case against brother Malvinder Singh and former colleague Sunil Godhwani, for “oppression and mismanagement of RHC Holding, Religare and Fortis”.

The Singh brothers were heirs to a multi-billion dollar pharmaceutical company — Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd. founded by their father. They subsequently sold it to Japanese firm Daiichi Sankyo and focused on the family-owned Fortis Healthcare Ltd., a hospital chain, and Religare Enterprises Ltd., a financial services firm. But recent financial troubles cost them their ownership in both companies. Fortis was recently acquired by Malaysian healthcare major IHH Healthcare BHD. Religare is now owned by a diverse set of shareholders.

The two companies are also being investigated by various agencies for alleged financial improprieties.

A Bloomberg story also pointed to the involvement of the Singh family’s spiritual guru Gurinder Singh Dhillon.

Shivinder Singh, in a statement to the media, said his brother and former Religare Enterprises Managing Director Sunil Godhwani were to blame for “a systematic undermining of the interests of the companies and their shareholders”.

He referred to the time he moved out of managing Fortis and joined the spiritual group Radha Soami Satsang Beas full time. “I took public retirement to my Spiritual home, Beas to serve my Master, in 2015; leaving the thriving company I founded in ‘trusted’ hands and in a period of less than two years, it has moved towards disintegration and ruin of a national healthcare asset”.

The malaise was systematic, his statement said referring to the arbitration case with Daiichi and the acquisition of a private charter airline business.

Sensitivity to the family business’ reputation has refrained me from making any public or private statements despite my family’s and my personal trauma. My family reputation kept me a silent spectator, as I mutely watched the organisation I founded come to a point where it was publicly auctioned; where my family and myself have been stripped of our legacy, our finances and my personal credibility. Despite my best efforts, on my return from Beas for the past many months to salvage the situation, the continued systemic missteps resulted in a quicksand which now seems beyond resolution, if I continue to remain silent.
Shivinder Singh - Media Statement
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Singh also objected to the connections drawn with the family’s spiritual guru.

“Recent planted media articles attempting to foist the responsibility of poor decisions taken, to an elder in the family who always stood by us as a father-figure ever since the premature demise of our father; has compelled me to break my silence. Attempts to pass the buck to an eminent figure, who has been a guiding light not only to our family but also to a large section of the public, deceives no one.”

His statement concludes by saying he has filed a case against Malvinder Singh and Godhwani and is no longer associated with his brother.

I can no longer be party to activities in which transparency and ethics are continuously and consistently negated. It has come to a point where this means that I am now disassociating from my brother as a business partner and will be pursuing an independent path going forward.
Shivinder Singh - Media Statement

Malvinder Singh and Godhwani didn’t immediately respond to BloombergQuint’s phone calls.

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Full Text Of Shivinder Singh’s Statement On Filing Case Against Brother Malvinder