The Supreme Court on Friday warned former Ranbaxy promoters Malvinder Singh and Shivinder Singh saying that they would be sent to jail if they are found guilty of contempt, PTI reported. A bench led by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi said it will hear the contempt petition on April 11.
The Supreme Court was hearing a petition by Japanese drug maker Daiichi Sankyo, which is seeking to recover Rs 3,500 crore awarded to it by a Singapore tribunal in its case against the estranged brothers, according to NDTV.
In March, the court had asked the brothers to inform it of how they plan to comply with the order passed by the Singapore tribunal. One of the brothers told the court that his assets could be sold and that he is yet to receive dues of Rs 6,300 crore.
“You may be owning half of the world but there is no concrete plan as to how the arbitral amount would be realised,” the bench said, according to PTI. “You said that somebody owed you Rs 6,000 crore. But this is neither here nor there.”
The estranged brothers were heirs to the Ranbaxy Laboratories business. They owe around Rs 3,500 crore to Daiichi Sankyo after a Singaporean tribunal found them guilty of luring the Japanese drug maker to purchase Ranbaxy in 2008 by withholding information. Sun Pharmaceuticals eventually purchased Ranbaxy from Daiichi Sankyo for $3.2 billion.
In February 2018, Malvinder and Shivinder Singh resigned as directors from the board of Fortis Healthcare after the Delhi High Court order upheld the Rs 3,500 crore arbitral award in favour of Daiichi Sankyo.
In September 2018, Shivinder Singh moved the National Company Law Tribunal against Malvinder Singh, accusing him of oppression and mismanagement. In December 2018, Malvinder Singh accused his brother of physical assault.
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