ED files FIR against Religare chief Rashmi Saluja, gives clean chit to Burman family

Religare Enterprises Limited (REL) chairman Rashmi Saluja has been accused by the Enforcement Directorate of criminal conspiracy. The accusation is related to attempting to obstruct the takeover of REL by the Burman family, which owns Dabur.

The Enforcement Directorate alleges that Saluja and other senior REL officials persuaded a shareholder, Vaibhav Jalinder Gawali, to file a complaint with the Mumbai police alleging misappropriation of the company's assets. This was supposedly in collusion with the Burman family. The Burman family, which owns 25% of REL, was planning to make an open offer to acquire an additional 26% of the company's shares.

The investigation found that Gawali was paid Rs 2 lakh by REL officials to file the complaint against the Burman family. It is alleged that current REL officials, including Saluja, were involved in filing the complaint to obstruct the takeover and to hide illegal gains made through the acquisition of employee stock options of Care Health Insurance.

Care Health Insurance, the insurance arm of Religare Enterprises, had previously approved granting 2.3 crore shares to Saluja as employee stock options at Rs 45.32 per share, but this approval was rejected by the insurance regulator, IRDAI.

In August 2022, the board of Care Health Insurance approved the grant of 2.7 crore shares as employee stock options to Saluja, again at Rs 45.32 per share, and also approved the issuance of rights shares at Rs 110 per share. The Enforcement Directorate alleged that REL money was used to buy shares at a higher price in order to meet the criteria for the stock options, without paying attention to the price disparities.