ED conducts searches on premises of Religare's Rashmi Saluja, other officials

Mumbai: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) conducted searches earlier this week at multiple premises linked to the senior officials at Religare Enterprises (REL), including its chairperson Rashmi Saluja, and seized several documents, official sources told ET. Among the documents are the demat and bank accounts of these officials, including Saluja.

Premises linked to other officials covered as a part of the search operations include Religare CFO Nitin Aggarwal, group general counsel Nishant Singhal, and Religare Finvest COO Chirag Jain. The investigation is related to allegations of funds being siphoned off from Religare Finvest, a non-banking financial company (NBFC) of the Religare Group, the sources further added.

The ED's case originated from a first information report (FIR) filed by Vaibhav Gawli, an office assistant at a pet cafe in Mumbai, alleging that funds were siphoned from Religare Finvest. The complaint accused former REL promoters Shivinder Singh and Malvinder Singh, and certain Burman family members - who had made an open offer to acquire a 26% stake in REL - among others.

Gawli claimed that he purchased 500 shares of REL at ₹239 on October 13, 2023. When the stock prices started to decline, he was prompted to file the FIR. While the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the Mumbai Police is currently probing the case, the ED entered the probe on money laundering allegations. A predicate offence is a must for the ED to probe a money laundering case.

Emails to REL and Saluja did not receive a response until press time.

Earlier this month, the ED summoned Dabur India chairman Mohit Burman, three independent directors of REL subsidiary Care Health Insurance, and officials from JM Financial, who managed the open offer.

Burman's statement was recorded, sources added. This is the first time that Burman has joined the investigation by a probe agency. To be clear, the EOW probing the predicate offence hasn't summoned the Burmans or others in the matter, as yet.

The insurance regulator last month penalised Care Health for issuing stock options to Saluja, despite a prohibition from the watchdog. The company was instructed to buy back 7.66 million shares allotted to her. Earlier this month, the Securities Appellate Tribunal (SAT) stayed the order but barred Saluja from exercising the stock options. The Burman family, the largest shareholder of REL, claims that 22.7 million options were illegally issued to Saluja and is demanding their cancellation.

Care Health executives have been asked to provide details about employee stock option plans (ESOPs) issued by the company between FY19 and the present. The ED has also requested details of the board and statutory approvals related to the ESOPs.

By August last year, the Burman family had accumulated a 21.5% stake in REL through various entities. In September, they acquired an additional 5.27% stake, triggering a mandatory open offer to buy an additional 26% stake from the public. The open offer was made at ₹235 per share on September 25.

On October 18, independent directors of REL wrote to regulators, including the Reserve Bank of India, Sebi, and the insurance watchdog, alleging fraud and other breaches by the Burmans. On October 26, entities controlled by the Burman family wrote to the REL board, seeking a probe into Saluja's trades of the firm's shares. This complaint was sent to Sebi and the stock exchanges on November 8. In June 2024, Sebi directed REL to submit the open offer proposal from the Burmans to the regulator.