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Informist, Friday, Feb. 20, 2026

NEW DELHI – The Supreme Court Friday rejected Religare Enterprises Ltd.'s former executive chairman Rashmi Saluja's plea challenging the Mumbai Police and the Enforcement Directorate's first information reports against her in connection with alleged irregularities in the allotment of employee stock options at Care Health Insurance Ltd. The apex court upheld the Bombay High Court's January order that said there was no substance in Saluja's contention that the state police had no jurisdiction to register the first information report.

The involvement of Saluja in the crime was detected in the course of an investigation by the Enforcement Directorate, the high court had said, adding that there was no illegality in registration of the first information report on the basis of the information supplied by the enforcement agency.

The funds of Religare Enterprises were diverted to subscribe to the rights issue of its subsidiary Care Health Insurance at INR 110 per share whereas the employee stock options of the same company were given to the petitioner and others at a substantially low price of INR 45.32 per share, said the high court. Apparently, there was an abundance of incriminating material collected by the Enforcement Directorate to file a prosecution complaint against Saluja, said the high court.

There were allegations against Saluja and her colleagues that they conspired to derail the takeover bid for Religare Enterprises by misusing employee stock options allotments and orchestrating a police complaint filed by an office assistant Vaibhav Jalinder Gawali, who was allegedly promised cash and shares in return. The Enforcement Directorate alleged that Gawali was paid INR 120,000 to purchase 500 shares of Religare Enterprises and another INR 80,000 as an assurance for taking care of his future needs for filing the complaint, where it was alleged that significant losses were caused to shareholders of the company due to connivance between the company's former directors Malvinder Mohan Singh and Shivender Mohan Singh and the Burmans of the Dabur Group.

The Enforcement Directorate alleged that the first information report by Gawali was to stop the Burman family from taking control of Religare Enterprises and Saluja to continue to enjoy sole control over the company. Since Religare Enterprises was set to come under the control of the Burman family, Saluja and others sought to "obstruct the process in any manner," said the agency.

At 1323 IST, the shares of Religare Enterprises Ltd. traded 0.4% higher at INR 221.76 on the National Stock Exchange.  End

IST, or Indian Standard Time, is five-and-a-half hours ahead of GMT

Reported by Surya Tripathi

Edited by Akul Nishant Akhoury

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