Supreme Court quashes Religare Finvest's plea against DBS Bank India
Supreme Court has quashed an FIR and the consequent criminal proceedings against DBS Bank India over a ₹791-crore fund diversion case filed by Religare Finvest Ltd (RFL).
The original petition, a civil suit at the Delhi High Court (HC) and an FIR with the Economic Offences Wing of the Delhi Police, were filed against Lakshmi Vilas Bank (LVB), which later merged with DBS India on a direction from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). After the merger, RFL sought to implead DBS in the criminal complaints along with former LVB officials.
A Supreme Court bench of Justices S Ravindra Bhat and Arvind Kumar, while setting aside Delhi High Court's order to continue the proceedings by EOW, said last week that permitting prosecution of DBS for the acts of LVB officials would result in a travesty of justice.
RFL had accused LVB of misappropriation of fixed deposits furnished by it as security for short-term loans availed of by its group companies RHC Holding and Ranchem.
While the civil suit was pending in the HC, in September 2019, it filed the FIR claiming that officials of LVB conspired with RHC Holding and Ranchem and siphoned off funds, including the fixed deposits of RFL. After RHC Holding and Ranchem defaulted on loan payments, LVB appropriated the fixed deposits without any prior notice to RFL, it claimed.
Based on the petition, EOW had filed a chargesheet against LVB officials.
