Mumbai: The Burman Group acquired control of the Delhi-based financial services firm, Religare Enterprises (REL), and was designated as its promoter after nearly 18 months of a takeover battle. On Thursday, the Burman family secured a controlling stake in REL following the completion of the open offer, bringing their total shareholding to 83,201,819 equity shares, representing 25.16%.

However, the Religare-Burman takeover battle took a dramatic turn when the Mumbai police's Economic Offences Wing (EOW) uncovered multiple inconsistencies in the claims made by the accused, Vaibhav Gawli, who is a key complainant against the Burmans. Gawli had complained to the EOW last year accusing the Burmans of making false claims and misrepresentations in their open offer to the shareholders of REL. The ED had taken over the case from the EOW and conducted its own probe in which it was revealed that Gawli had levelled the allegations against the Burmans at the behest of former executive chairperson and director of REL, Rashmi Saluja, and others. Following this, the ED had filed a complaint against Gawli, Saluja and others.

The ED had filed the second complaint at the Matunga police station before it was transferred to the EOW.

In the complaint, the ED mentioned that in his statement recorded on August 12 last year, Gawli admitted that Saluja, along with two other top executives of the RIL had given him Rs1.2 lakh to purchase 500 shares of REL and Rs 80,000 to file the complaint against the Burmans.

“Since the complaint lodged by ED mentioned that Gawli took Rs 2 lakh from Saluja, he was questioned on multiple occasions. When asked, how he travelled to Delhi? He said he took a bus from Dadar to Noida but wasn’t able to give any details on when or which bus he took. When quizzed on where in Delhi is the REL office, he replied by saying it is a glass facade building but wasn’t able to give any further details on the exact address. When asked about which floor was Saluja’s office, he replied saying he forgot. When enquired who introduced him to Saluja and how he landed up in Delhi, he claimed he received a call to come to Delhi and meet her. Gawli has refused to give any details on the contact who introduced him to Saluja. When asked to submit the phone from which he made/received calls, he claimed he misplaced it,” elaborated a senior police officer.

The Mumbai police probing a complaint lodged by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) against Rashmi Saluja and others plans to confront Saluja over the statement made by the ‘complainant’ in original case pertaining to the open offer made by the Burman family to the shareholders of Religare Enterprises Ltd (REL).

The city police are probing two complaints linked to the Religare takeover saga. The first complaint was filed by Vaibhav Gawli, a shareholder of Religare Enterprises Ltd. Gawli named Dabur Group chairman Mohit Burman, his family members, and former Religare promoters Malvinder and Shivinder Singh among 14 accused in the case. He has accused the Burman family of making false claims and misrepresentations in their open offer to the shareholders of Religare Enterprises, allegedly manipulating them into tendering their shares.

The second complaint was filed by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) against Vaibhav Gawli, accusing him of lodging a false complaint against the Burman Group in collusion with Rashmi Saluja, Nitin Aggarwal, and Religare Group’s general counsel Nishant Singhal. The ED alleges that the complaint to the Mumbai police was intended to falsely implicate Mohit Burman and his family members in an effort to derail the proposed takeover of the company and its subsidiaries. Additionally, the complaint suggests that the move was aimed at concealing illegal gains obtained through the acquisition of Employee Stock Options (ESOPs) of Care Health Insurance Limited (CHIL).

Sources said that the city police will soon send a fresh summon to Saluja to quiz her on the complainant. “... If what is mentioned in the complaint is true then we would like to quiz Saluja on Gawli's statements and the purported meeting,” added the official.

Three agencies namely the ED, Mumbai police and the SFIO are probing the affairs of the company.

Free Press Journal contacted the Religare Group for their response. In reply, the company stated that the case was not filed against the company but against an individual, Dr. Rashmi Saluja, who is no longer associated with Religare. The company declined to comment on the EOW investigation. Meanwhile, Rashmi Saluja remained unavailable for comment, and no contact could be established with her before the news went to publish.