‘I Didn’t Hit Him, He Hit Me’: Singh Brothers’ Feud Gets Physical

Former Fortis and Ranbaxy promoters Malvinder Mohan Singh and Shivinder Mohan Singh came to trading blows in the latest turn to their ongoing feud.

In a video posted on social media, Malvinder Singh is seen as saying, “Today is Dec. 5, 2018, a little after 6 p.m., Shivinder Mohan Singh assaulted me at 55 Hanuman Road. He physically hit me. He hurt me.”

Pointing at a bruise on his forearm, Malvinder said, “He injured me here. He broke this button and he gave me a bruise here, he bruised me here. He kept threatening me and refused to budge until the team here separated him from me.”

The incident reportedly happened on Wednesday as Shivinder was trying to disrupt the board meeting of a group company, Prius Real Estate, which he claimed has lent around Rs 2,000 crore to companies owned by Gurinder Singh Dhillon and his family.

Malvinder said the board meeting was held to take a decision on recovery of money from the Dhillon Group.

Shivinder, in an emailed statement, has denied Malvinder's accusations calling it a “false and a shameless attempt” to cast doubt on his integrity. Instead, the younger brother painted a different picture of the incidents of Dec. 5.

Malvinder was trying to coerce some employees to video record statements under duress, Shivinder said, adding that this concerned him about the employees' well-being and so he intervened.

Shivinder added that he had made a police complaint but withdrew it on intervention by the family. “It has been clear to me for some time that Malvinder and I cannot work together. The gulf between our value systems is clearly too wide. This latest incident closes all options for any possible solution to work together.”

Later in the day Malvinder too issued a press statement accusing Shivinder of the assault. “Shivinder who is neither a Director, Employee nor Shareholder in a particular company came to the venue with an intention to disrupt a critical Board meeting of the said company,” the statement said. “After hearing about the disruption I came to the venue to understand the situation. While I was trying to understand the situation with the members present, he forced himself into the room and physically assaulted me.”

The relationship between the Singh brothers, erstwhile promoters of Fortis Healthcare, went sour after allegations of fund diversion from the healthcare chain emerged.

It reportedly aggravated further over payment of arbitration award to Daiichi Sankyo. Shivinder had offered to pay his share of the Rs 3,500 crore award to the Japanese drug maker in a dispute related to the acquisition of Ranbaxy Laboratories.

Earlier in September this year, Shivinder had filed a petition before the National Company Law Tribunal alleging that collective and ongoing actions of Malvinder and ex-Religare chief Sunil Godhwani led to a systemic undermining of the interests of the companies and their shareholders.

He had also alleged his elder brother Malvinder forged his wife's signature, perpetrated illegal financial transactions and led the company into an unsustainable debt trap.

Later, on Sept. 14, the petition was withdrawn by Shivinder from NCLT on his mother's advice.

(With inputs from PTI)