Ranbaxy saga: Betrayal, cheating, illicit affair and more

A huge and majestic bungalow on capital's most exclusive APJ Kalam Road (earlier Aurangzeb Road) is not far away from the 1941 built Tughlaq Road police station. In an almost endless and bitter spat among the family members of Ranbaxy Laboratories patriarch, Bhai Mohan Singh, the warring parties file complaints against each-other at the Tughlaq Road PS where the FIRs of Mahatma Gandhi and Indira Gandhi were also written. During the lifetime of Bhai Mohan Singh, his three sons, Parvinder, Manjit and Analjit, were fighting with either their father or with each-other for moveable or immoveable assets. After the demise of Rawalpindi-born Bhai Mohan Singh in 2006 and his son, Parvinder Singh, the acrimonious relationship spilled to next generation. In a latest saga of acrimonious fight within the family, which used to control Ranbaxy Laboratories and Forties hospitals and still controls cash-rich Max Hospital chain, Neelu Analjit Singh, wife of Analjit Singh, has made serious allegations against her husband, who heads the Max group.

In a petition with the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT), Neelu Analjit Singh has alleged that she was facing shareholder oppression at a group holding company and accused its directors, including her husband, of mismanagement of affairs.

Neelu Analjit Singh has a 24.1 per cent stake in Max Ventures & Investment. Neelu Singh claimed that the company's assets were being sold, alienated or siphoned off through sham transactions and that she was being ousted by her husband from the business. She has further alleged that a woman with whom her husband was having an "illicit affair" was a key beneficiary of these 'illegal acts'. It is said that father of three kids Analjit Singh accepts that she has an affair with a woman. Analjit has three children. One on his daughters is married in the family of Vachani family of Delhi. Vachani family earlier owns Weston Electronics.

Meanwhile, it is a known fact that Parvinder Singh's two sons, Malvinder Singh and Shivinder, had assaulted each other in full-public view in 2018 in hanuman Road area in Connaught Place. In a video, circulated on WhatsApp, Malvinder is seen having injuries on his hands, which he claimed were caused by Shivinder. "Today, December 5, 2018, a little after 6 pm, Shivinder Mohan Singh assaulted me at 55 Hanuman Road. He physically hit me... injured me, broke a button, gave me a bruise, and kept threatening me and refused to budge until the team here separated him from me," he said.

On his part, Malvinder told The Times of India, that the episode took place after Shivinder tried to disrupt the board meeting of a group company, Prius Real Estate, which, as he claimed, lent around Rs 2,000 crore to Gurinder Singh Dhillon's firms. However, Shivinder Singh, had termed his brother's allegations as "all lies". He accused Malvinder of threatening some employees and said that the video circulated by him was "a setup." "He scuffled me up in office yesterday when I wanted to enter a meeting where he was intimidating and threatening our employees. He tried to push me out and ruffled me and then tried to get some female employees to put a harassment case on me," said Shivinder.

Actually, both brothers who got everything in a platter have been in a soup since they sold their parent company, Ranbaxy Laboratries, to Japan based firm, Daiichi Sankyo. They were accused of misappropriation, as well as not paying previous fines relating to Ranbaxy's takeover by Daiichi Sankyo. They were arrested by the Delhi Police. The brothers were charged with fraud. Well, the Singh brothers were facing a litany of charges and investigations relating to their various companies and ventures too. Prior to their arrest, the enforcement directorate raided the brothers' homes after a case was filed against them under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.

And if scan through the sob story of Bhai Mohan Singh's family, we find one more very unfortunate chapter in the series of spats when Malvinder Singh filed a Criminal case on July 5, 2006, against his uncle Analjit Singh at the Tughlaq Road PS. Malvinder had charged Analjit with trespassing. He alleged that around 40-50 of Analjit's men intruded into the other side of the joint property on Aurangzeb Road and allegedly "threatened, abused and manhandled" Malvinder's mother and sister-in-law.

Well, Bhai Mohan Singh, who had also served as the Vice President of New Delhi Municipal Corporation (NDMC), was a bitter man after his first son, Parvinder, had ousted him from the Ranbaxy Laboratories, which the old man considered as his daughter. In a very candid interview with this writer in his Aurangzeb Road house in mid 90s, he said, "Parvinder, also known as Pammi, removed him from the board of his company in 1993." He and his wife held 5 per cent stake in Ranbaxy, while Parvinder's immediate family had 32 per cent. Some people close to the family even claim that father-son later never speak with each-other. Says, Shyamal Majumdar, a noted business affairs expert, "Any professional relationship between father Bhai Mohan and his eldest son, in retrospect, seemed doomed from the start. The old man was a product of the licence quota raj and believed that networking with the rich and influential was critical for the business. He had no qualms about using his connections and was known to flex his muscles if the need arose. The son, however, was a product of one of the best pharmacy institutes in the world and was more of a global citizen. He was not steeped in the old ways of seeking and granting favours that most Indian business houses of that era seemed to practice. He also believed that in a specialised business such as pharmaceuticals, professionals who knew the business and its complexities ought to call the shots. Given their vastly different backgrounds, it was difficult for the twain to meet as each was right in his own way."

Those who knew Bhai Mohan Singh still remember him as a very gracious and a large-hearted man. A close relative of noted author, Khushwant Singh, Bhai Mohan Singh always wanted that his family lives under one roof. For this very purpose, he had purchased a massive mansion at the Tughlaq Road. Alas, the God had other ideas.

(The author is a Delhi-based journalist who closely follows South Asia, business, Delhi and Indian Diaspora)