The Delhi High Court on Monday told former promoters of Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd. Malvinder and Shivinder Singh to inform before diluting any of their unencumbered assets and asked for a certificate from their chartered accountants listing the details of all such assets.
The court's direction came after Daiichi Sankyo Co. Ltd., which is embroiled in a bitter legal battle with the brother duo to recover an arbitration award of over Rs 2,500 crore granted to the Japanese drugmaker, in the previous hearing last week had pleaded for the second time in this regard that they haven't disclosed details of assets that could be considered to recover the amount. It had also asked the court to block any sale of assets by the brothers.
In 2008, the Japanese firm had made its foray into the Indian pharmaceutical market by buying a majority stake in Ranbaxy Laboratories for Rs 19,804 crore.
However, in 2013, Daiichi had filed an arbitration case against Ranbaxy in Singapore. The firm had accused the Singh brothers of concealment and misrepresentation of facts. The case came after Ranbaxy, in May 2013, pleaded guilty to misrepresenting data and fraudulent activities in pursuit of fast drug approvals and paid $500 million to the U.S. Department of Justice as settlement. In 2015, Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. agreed to buy Ranbaxy, which was by then controlled by Daiichi, for Rs 22,679 crore.
A Singapore tribunal had last year ordered the Singh brothers to pay the Japanese drug maker Rs 2,562-crore damages for concealing information regarding wrongdoing at Ranbaxy while selling it for $4.6 billion in 2008.
Justice S Muralidhar will next hear the case on March 20.
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