Mumbai News: Special PMLA Court Issues Notice To Ex-Religare Chairperson Rashmi Saluja, Others Over ₹179 Crore Money Laundering Case

Mumbai: The special PMLA court has issued notice to Rashmi Saluja, former Executive Chairperson at Religare Enterprises Ltd (REL) and non-executive chairperson at M/s Care Health Insurance Ltd (CHIL) and four others, after Enforcement Directorate (ED) has submitted a prosecution complaint against them accusing them of money laundering.

Details of Alleged Money Laundering

ED had on Monday submitted a prosecution complaint for alleged money laundering to the tune of Rs 179.54 crores, against Saluja, Nishant Singhal, former president and general counsel at REL, Nitin Aggarwal, former group Chief Executive officer (CEO), REL, Vaibhav Gawli, office assistant at Happy Tail Pet café and Pratap Venugopal, former Retainer for REL and Independent Director at CHIL.

Alleged Manipulation of ESOPs

The agency has in its complaint claimed that, on November 29, 2021 under Saluja, the pool of Employee Stock Option Plans (ESOPs) was expanded from 12.5% to 15%. Later, on December 28, 2021, she proposed for grant of 2,27,11,327 shares of CHILL to her and also to Singhal and Aggarwal. This the ED claimed was the equivalent to the expanded pool of 2.5% of ESOP.

Claims of Collusion and Regulatory Violation

ED claimed that Saluja in collusion with Singhal and Aggarwal used her position for making unlawful gains in the form of ESOPS of CHIL, wherein she herself approved her own name along with the name of Singhal and Aggarwal for ESOPs of CHILL without discussion or prior approval of the board or management of both REL and CHIL.

Ignoring IRDAI Approval

Further, it was claimed that even after the IRDAI, declined to give approval for grant of ESOPs, the company went ahead with the transfer on the basis of legal opinion obtained by Venugopal from senior advocate Arvind Datar and retired IAS officer, J Hari Narayan.

Alleged Misrepresentation of Legal Opinions

ED has alleged that the probe revealed that Venugopal and Singhal misrepresented opinion to bring out the fact that she can be granted ESOPs of M/s CHIL in her capacity as an employee of REL without any approval from the IRDAI . Besides, ED claimed that, draft opinion of Datar was also edited, altering it to align with their personal motives, thus completely compromising its integrity.

Objective of Alleged Scheme

“The ultimate objective of this coordinated effort was to unlawfully secure a substantial equity stake in M/s CHIL for Saluja, through the grant of ESOPs. This blatant manipulation of legal advice and disregard for the authority of the Board and regulatory guidelines clearly reflects a premeditated scheme to acquire an unjustified financial interest in M/s CHIL, contrary to the interests of the company's governance and the IRDAI'S regulatory framework,” ED has alleged in its complaint.

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Mumbai Police EOW Files 3,000-Page Chargesheet Against Ex-Religare Chairperson Rashmi Saluja In ESOP Case

Discrepancy in Share Rates

Meanwhile, the agency claimed Saluja was granted ESOPs at the rate of Rs 45.32 per share, whereas on the same hand REL invested in M/S CHIL and bought shares of M/S CHIL at an inflated rate of Rs 110. Thus, it was claimed that out of Rs 250 crores raised by CHIL, Rs 192 crores came from REL.

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