Malvinder Singh goes to cops against Sunil and Sanjay Godhwani

One of the charges filed on behalf of Malav Holdings claims that the Godhwani brothers, along with officials working for Ligare, sanctioned bogus and fake invoices for fictitious expenses. The complaint was filed on 30 November with the economic offences wing of Delhi Police. Mint has reviewed a copy of the complaint.

Malav Holdings holds 50% of non-banking financial company RHC Holding Pvt. Ltd and 30% in Ligare Aviation, the charter airline business of the former promoters of Fortis Healthcare Ltd, Malvinder and Shivinder Mohan Singh.

The airline was started in 2006 as Ran Air services. In the beginning, it offered turboprops, helicopter jets and later got into air ambulance services. The company offered services to corporates and politicians, among others. Later it diversified into crew training and aircraft maintenance, units that required huge investments.

Responding to a query from Mint, Sunil Godhwani said: “Ligare Aviation was a privately held company (of the Singh family) and had a board which comprised of both Malvinder and Shivinder and their family/friends/associates and was actively controlled/owned by the Singh family companies under Hemant Dhingra. My brother Sanjay resigned in November 2015 owing to differences as he was being pressured by promoters to raise financing on aircraft which were under litigation and grounded on account of customs demand. All decisions were being ratified by the board which comprised of members as explained above. This is a pre-planned conspiracy to malign reputations and to try to hoodwink the process of the law while showing himself as a victim of fraud and, hence, no money to pay Daiichi."

The first charge against the Godhwani brothers, along with some other employees of Ligare Aviation, relates to cheating and causing loss of approximately ₹18 crore and ₹88 lakh by fraudulently and dishonestly sanctioning payments.

Malvinder Singh has also accused the Godhwani brothers and the other employees of generating invoices for alleged “engineer familiarization training and aircraft on ground support" for more than ₹4.94 crore.

Payments were made to several agencies and upon perusal it was discovered that such services were never rendered by them, according to the second of the three charges cited in the complaint.

The third charge relates to a breach of trust reposed in them and causing loss of more than ₹6 crore by fraudulently transferring shares of Spectrum Voyages Pvt. Ltd (formerly known as Ligare Travels Pvt. Ltd) and Spectrum Aero Pvt. Ltd (formerly known as Ligare Flysims Pvt. Ltd) worth more than ₹6 crore in their favour in 2015 for a paltry sum of ₹42 lakh.

The investigating officer handling the case and Malvinder Singh did not respond to queries seeking comment.