Family business ‘mismanaged’, cries Shivinder, takes brother to court

NEW DELHI: Former Ranbaxy Laboratories promoter and founder of Fortis Healthcare , Shivinder Singh, has dragged his elder brother Malvinder and Religare Enterprises’ former CEO and MD Sunil Godhwani to court for “oppression and mismanagement’’ of family businesses.


With this, the storied business family behind Ranbaxy, later sold to Japan’s Daiichi Sankyo in a controversial $4.6-billion deal a decade ago, is in the midst of yet another unsavory feud.

The case has been filed in the National Company Law Tribunal, Shivinder said on Tuesday, adding that “the collective, ongoing actions of Malvinder and Godhwani led to a systematic undermining of the interests of the companies” including RHC Holding, Religare and Fortis.



Shivinder’s legal action against his brother will further complicate the mess which the group and its various companies plunged into recently. There has been speculation about serious differences creeping in between the Singh brothers, with Shivinder, a former executive vice-chairman of Fortis, claiming that he was not in a position of authority when Fortis gave unsecured advances to three companies linked to promoters.

His elder sibling, Malvinder, who stepped down as executive vice-chairman in February, has countered it by saying that all decisions were taken collectively. Earlier, Shivinder had blamed Godhwani for “orchestrating” a series of transactions for over a decade, and leaving them with a huge debt load in 2016.



Shivinder said he was parting ways from his brother as a business partner, and would be pursuing an independent path going forward. Shivinder and Malvinder had built Religare after selling Ranbaxy in 2008.

Citing “red flags” that have crept up in the group with disturbing regularity, Shivinder said on Tuesday, "Decisions taken in Religare’s NBFC arm; the transaction and subsequent management of the sale of the group’s then flagship – Ranbaxy to Daiichi, culminating in one of the most damaging arbitration cases in the history of India Inc -- the unimaginable losses accumulated in running a private charter airline business (Ligare aviation), have all shown that the malaise is systemic".

Elaborating the reason for filing the case, he said, "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”.

The reference is to Gurinder Singh Dhillon, better known as Babaji, the spiritual guru of Radha Soami Satsang Beas (RSSB). Reportedly, nearly Rs 2,700 crore of Ranbaxy sale proceeds were transferred to firms owned by the Dhillon family and associates and senior functionaries of the RSSB sect. Shivinder said he had taken public retirement to his spiritual home, Beas in 2015; “leaving the thriving company’’ he founded in ‘trusted’ hands and in less than two years, it has moved towards disintegration and ruin of a national healthcare asset.

Regarding his silence till now, he said, “Sensitivity to the family business’ reputation had 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”.

Ready to Make a Smarter Property Decision? Build Your Legacy with TOI Homes.