ED questions Religare chair Rashmi Saluja in money laundering case

New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has quizzed Religare Enterprises executive chairperson Rashmi Saluja in connection with its probe into a money laundering case linked to the financial services firm, people aware of the development said.

Saluja appeared before the agency sleuths in ED's Mumbai office on December 17 where she was quizzed for a few hours. As per available information, the agency will summon Saluja again for another round of questioning.

Saluja did not respond to ET's query on the matter until press time Thursday.


ET was the first to report on December 11 that ED had summoned Saluja for questioning. The summons was sent under Section 50 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act. Under this section, a statement recorded before the agency is admissible in court.

The police in September 2024 registered an FIR against Saluja, former Religare group finance chief Nitin Aggarwal and general counsel Nishant Singhal based on a complaint given by the ED.

The federal agency filed the complaint after recording the statement of a Religare shareholder, Vaibhav Gawli, under Section 50 of the PMLA.

The ED alleged that Saluja and the others motivated Gawli to file an FIR at the Matunga police station in Mumbai, alleging misappropriation of the company's assets by former directors Malvinder and Shivinder Mohan Singh in connivance with the Burman family of Dabur, who held a 25% stake in Religare and wanted to make an open offer for another 26%.

The ED alleged that Gawli was paid Rs 2 lakh to file the FIR.

Earlier, Aggarwal had made some "damaging disclosures" in his statement recorded by the ED after being cornered on the issue of employee stock options and other issues, as ET first reported on September 25 last year.

In August last year, the agency conducted searches at multiple premises linked to senior Religare executives including Saluja and seized several documents. The same month, the ED froze Esop shares of Saluja and other executives worth ₹179.54 crore. It alleged that they had made unlawful gains of that much by diverting Religare's funds to subscribe to rights issues of Care Health Insurance, a group company.

Saluja has repeatedly denied all charges levelled against her and maintained that all the shares awarded to her and other executives were "as per the company policies," and were given only to incentivise employees.

Last month, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) approved the Burman family's open offer proposal for Religare. The approval came with conditions, such as maintaining the current corporate structure and consolidation of the non-banking finance companies of the Burman group.

Religare's annual general meeting (AGM) to get the shareholders' nod for three resolutions, including the reappointment of Saluja as the chairperson was slated for December 31.

However, on December 18 a division bench of the Madhya Pradesh High Court headed by chief justice Suresh Kumar Kait, stayed the AGM of Religare Enterprises until further notice, on a plea filed by an investor.