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Journalism of Courage
The development comes as the high court is still in the process of enforcing a Rs 3,500 crore arbitration award won by Japanese drug maker Daiichi Sankyo against the Singh brothers. The court has sought Daiichi’s reply to SREI’s application and will hear this case next on March 28.
“We have moved an application at court. There is a property — RS Infrastructure Pvt Ltd’s land — mortgaged to us in 2016 that we want to sell,” Harish Malhotra, senior counsel for SREI, told The Indian Express.
The financing entity is seeking to recover Rs 337 crore loaned to companies controlled by the Singhs, against which this land was given as security in case the money was not repaid, according to him.
According to SREI’s application, a copy of which The Indian Express has viewed, the financial institution has been unable to complete a transaction with a potential buyer of the land due to orders in Daiichi’s existing case attaching immovable properties so that they can be sold to pay the Japanese firm’s award.
A Singapore tribunal in 2016 ordered the Singhs to pay Daiichi for allegedly concealing information regarding wrongdoing at Ranbaxy, once India’s largest drugmaker, when selling it to the Japanese pharma company for $4.6 billion in 2008.
“ … with each passing day, the Applicant (SREI) is suffering grave prejudice and financial harm as the Applicant is unable to sell the immovable properties which are mortgaged to it and over which it has first and exclusive charge … ,” stated the application.
“The Applicant has with great difficulty and effort, managed to locate a potential buyer for the property in question. In the arduous circumstances, and in view of the financial hardship being faced by the Applicant, it is eminently essential for the Applicant to be able to recover the loan money through selling off the mortgaged properties to the applicant as security,” it stated, adding that it is “settled law” that SREI has “prior rights” over the land.
SREI declined to comment on the matter.
Queries sent to the Singhs and RHC Holding Pvt Ltd, their holding company, as well as Daiichi Sankyo’s counsel remained unanswered by press time Monday.
