The Delhi high court on Monday ordered the attachment of assets held by two investment companies of brothers Malvinder Singh and Shivinder Singh, former owners of Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd.
The warrant of attachment was issued after Daiichi Sankyo of Japan moved a petition seeking the execution of the court’s 31 January order upholding the enforceability of a Rs3,500 crore arbitration award against the Singh brothers and others. All assets disclosed by Oscar Investments Ltd and RHC Holding Pvt. Ltd in their 2 December 2016 and 14 March 2017 affidavits submitted to the court will be attached under the order. The assets include shares, moveable and immovable property, art as well as debts owed to the two companies.
The court also prohibited the two companies from operating their bank accounts, except for the purpose of payment of salaries to employees and satisfaction of statutory debts.
Justice Jayant Nath further directed the other judgment debtors, i.e. Singh brothers and others, to submit an “up-to-date” affidavit declaring all the unencumbered assets held by them.
Meanwhile, the 19th February order by the court directing Singh brothers and others to maintain status quo with respect to the remaining “unattached” assets held by them, directly or indirectly, would continue.
The counsel appearing for Daiichi Sankyo, P.V. Kapur, submitted that as per the civil procedure code, the assets held by the two companies should be attached and an attachment officer should take custody of any such assets.
On 31 January, the court had upheld the enforceability of the award passed by a Singaporean Tribunal, which found Singh brothers and others guilty of making false claims in a self-assessment report and of fraudulently misrepresenting and concealing the “genesis, nature and severity of the US regulatory investigations” of Ranbaxy when Daiichi Sankyo bought their 34.82% stake for $2.4 billion in 2008.
The total deal value was $4.6 billion.
