High Court delays hearing involving RSSB guru and others to February 5

Here's another story relating to the involvement of Gurinder Singh Dhillon, the guru of Radha Soami Satsang Beas, in irregular financial transactions. 

Today's Economic Times story casts more light on the affidavit submitted by Dhillon in response to a High Court of Delhi order. Yesterday I shared another story on the same subject.

As you can read below, Dhillon admits that his sons participated in suspicious "round trip" transfers of money between RHC Holding and shell companies controlled wholly or in part by the Dhillon family, where money would be paid and repaid so rapidly, it didn't show up on accounting statements until this was eventually discovered.

Another interesting aspect of the story is that it answers a question in an earlier post today following the arrest of Malvinder Singh by India's Enforcement Directorate. What happened to the November 14 hearing of the High Court regarding this matter? The last paragraph of the story below says:

The court that took up the matter today asked the other garnishees to file their affidavit to the court registrar by 18 December. The next date of hearing is February 5.

So Dhillon and his family will have to answer more questions about their involvement in this financial scandal. The RSSB guru is challenging the financial records of RHC Holding.

Dhillon has categorically denied liability to repay the said amounts and also denied the validity or correctness of the ledgers annexed in the RHC affidavit. “The said ledgers were never shared with the deponent or his family members and the same are denied for lack of knowledge or even otherwise,” it added.

"Denied for lack of knowledge" seems like a weak excuse. And now the Dhillon family isn't denying that they received fraudulent funds. They're just denying that they have to pay the money back.
Download Radha Soami chief admits to financial dealings with Singh brothers - The Economic Times

Chief of Radha Soami Satsang Beas (RSSB) Gurinder Singh Dhillon has admitted of his financial dealings with the Singh brothers though he denied of “any liability” towards RHC holdings Ltd, promoted by Malvinder and Shivinder Singh. In an affidavit filed before the Delhi High court on November 12, Dhillon has disclosed about the financial transactions between RHC holdings Ltd and his family members dating back to 2006.

The court had in October ordered Dhillon along with his wife Shabnam, sons Gurkirat and Gurpreet and daughter in law Nayan Tara to deposit the amount owed to RHC holdings pvt Ltd in connection with the execution of Rs 3500 crore arbitration award won by Japanese form Daiichi Sankyo against former Ranbaxy promoters. While in his plea Dhillon had told the court that RHC Holding has made false claims. The court in its order had then asked the Dhillons to file relevant documents related to their dealings and transactions with the garnishees and their related companies.

The Dhillons are among 55 individuals and entities ordered by the court to pay over Rs 6000 crore owed to RHC holding in connection with the settlement of a dispute to Daiichi Sankyo’s acquisition of Ranbaxy laboratoriesNSE 5.63 %.

According to a 74 page affidavit filed in the High Court, Dhillon has said that in 2010, RHC holdings Ltd (respondent 19) through Singh brothers had approached him to assist them in subscribing for the rights issue, suggesting that they would finance Dhillons to subscribe to the rights issue. Dhillon has said that it was agreed that he and his family members would not be made liable to repay any amount or interest. “It was also agreed that upon the shares being sold or disposed of if the price realised was below the subscribed price, then the entire amount would be shared 50:50” between RHC and Dhillons family who had subscribed to the shares”.

He has claimed that in view of the “complete trust” and “close family relationship” between the families, they did not record any agreement and the arrangement was based “purely on mutual oral understanding and agreement”. “In fact at that time the local bank accounts from which the transactions were taking place were looked after by respondent No 19’s team,” it said.

On the basis of “verbal agreement” in February 2010, RHC transferred Rs 219 crore each to his sons, which was then used to subscribe to the rights issue, resulting in an allotment of 61,83,013 shares of REL to each of his sons.

According to the affidavit, Dhillon has disclosed that his sons sold off some shares in 2011 which they had purchased in 2006. The rest of the shares, according to Dhillon’s affidavit were “pledged to the lenders in connection with loans taken to facilitate share purchase transaction for the benefit of Malvinder and Shivinder. The pledges were invoked and the shares were sold at a substantial loss,” it said. Resultantly, the family doesn’t own REL shares, he claims. Dhillon has said that RHC had surplus funds of his sons of Rs 103.50 crores and it was agreed that the amount would be repaid to the Dhillons as and when required.

He has also disclosed that RHC devised such a mechanism that transactions essentially involved transferring money from one subsidiary to a bank account of Dhillons and then transferring the same money either on the same day or shortly thereafter to another subsidiary of the group or usually to RHC holdings Ltd.

“The transactions carried out by Respondent 19 (RHC holdings) resulted in Gurpreet and Gurkirat receiving funds from various companies controlled by Respondent 19 which were immediately transferred to Respondent 19 or to other companies controlled by Respondent 19,” It said.

In fact, he has claimed that over the course of 2011-2015, out of the surplus of Rs 103.5 crores with RHC he and his family drew only Rs29.38 crores, leaving the balance surplus of Rs 74.12 crores. “Thus an amount of Rs 74.12 crores continues to be due from RHC holdngs Ltd”.

According to his affidavit, “no amounts are payable by his, his wife and his daughter in law to any of the entities named in the RHC affidavit.

Dhillon has categorically denied liability to repay the said amounts and also denied the validity or correctness of the ledgers annexed in the RHC affidavit. “The said ledgers were never shared with the deponent or his family members and the same are denied for lack of knowledge or even otherwise,” it added.

The court that took up the matter today asked the other garnishees to file their affidavit to the court registrar by 18 December. The next date of hearing is February 5.

Comments

[Sewak]

Could you post a copy of the above affidavit in pdf such that readers can reach their own conclusion first hand

[Neon]

Nooooo!! Means I have to go to more satsangs!

[Mike England]

Holy Moley
All the Sangatis will be in Sach Khand by the time this is done

[Pia]

Brian where does it say that they received fraudulent funds? The affidavit says full control was given to RHc Malvinder and shivinder and they moved money under the name of the Dhillon sons. I need to know where admission of receipt of fraudulent funds is mentioned.

[Spence Tepper]

Hi Pia
"According to a 74 page affidavit filed in the High Court, Dhillon has said that in 2010, RHC holdings Ltd (respondent 19) through Singh brothers had approached him to assist them in subscribing for the rights issue, suggesting that they would finance Dhillons to subscribe to the rights issue. "

The monies were siphoned illegally to Gurinder. The rights to option discounted shares were given to Gurinder without establishing his subscription as a principle of the company.

In short he received stolen funds and the options to discounted stock ( that are corporate liabilities from a corporate pool requiring board approval in publicly traded companies) .

In short thieves used the public status of these companies to commit robbery and with Gurinder's tacit approval, his bank accounts and his sons accounts.

He explains that Malvinder et al promised this was all OK, and Gurinder never questioned why he wasn't being asked to sign anything.

Assuming the broadest possible interpretation, that he was astronomically ignorant of the law, still, these are stolen monies and assets, and as with any stolen property, it must be returned.

His claim that his ignorance means he doesn't need to return anything demonstrates that the Guru is immoral.

Nov 14 has indeed revealed a large portion of the truth about Gurinder, and by his own admission, no doubt to avoid prosecution as an accomplice.

But he still must return the stolen funds.

[Land Grab Singh Baba.]

The 24 High Courts in India have culmulative pendency of 5 Million cases of which 1.4 Million cases are pending between 10 and 30 years.Allahabad High Court (Gujrat)has more than 38 Thousand cases pending for over 30 years.Calcutta High Court is dealing with a case since 1800.The last hearing was on 20th November 2018,it has 244 thousand cases pending ,of which are 9979 are pending for than 30 years.

Do you think i did not know this??.
I am not a Baba for nothing.

[Brian Hines]

Pia, take a look at a biog post I wrote about a criminal complaint filed in March 2019 by the board of Religare against Sunil Godhwani and others.

https://hinessight.blogs.com/church_of_the_churchless/2019/03/family-of-rssb-guru-at-risk-of-charges-of-criminal-conspiracy.html

Also review the complaint itself.

https://hinessight.blogs.com/files/religare-complaint-pdf.pdf

On page 8 you'll find a mention of "circular movement of funds," which is what the RSSB guru has admitted to his affidavit. Money was deposited and withdrawn rapidly between different accounts and shell companies in a fashion designed to hide what was going on from auditors. That's fraudulent.

[Pia]

Brian is what you are saying is what happened here then what is claimed in the affidavit is that the accounts of his sons were used by respondent 19 to move funds back to their account so then still the beneficiary of these funds are RHc and Singh brothers. How then have they “received the funds” as you claim?? Furthermore the affidavit clearly says that respondent 19 and The team looked after the bank accounts and did this themselves.

So for the record. I believe Gurinder Singh Dhillon. Clearly you believe the respondent no 19 and the Singh brothers. Your choice.

[Guru]

More details about court proceedings for today.

https://indianexpress.com/article/business/companies/daiichi-sankyo-ranbaxy-case-entities-told-to-give-proof-of-no-pending-liabilities-towards-singh-brothers-6120447/lite/

[Spence Tepper]

Dear Satsangi friends
Let us all have a moment of silence to morn the passing of four close, dear friends of yours. They have been your trusted, well loved intimate partners, on this odyssey into the truth about RSSB and Gurinder et al.

Today Gurinder himself slay them all proudly and without mercy in public.

These were the four false ideas dearly loved, dearly held tightly amidst the storms and gales of this tumultuous journey, by many of you.....

1.That Gurinder did not receive any stolen funds from Malvinder et al...

By his own admission today, he did!

2. That the Bloomberg and Mint investigations and articles in the press showing he received these monies was fake news....

By his own admission, this was not fake news. The articles, at least in part, told the truth.....

3. That Gurinder, all knowing, did not take any money from anyone.

He did, though he claims the thieves hid the truth from him. Is that even possible for a Sat Guru? No it isn't.

4.That Gurinder lives to the highest moral code....

He doesn't.

Now let us move on to the next higher region of magical thinking: all the inventions and justifications for why he received these stolen monies and lied about it, and why he is justified not returning it..... Get your minds twisting and turning and let's see all the colorful unicorns, fairies, knights in shining armor and magical fire - breathing demons your minds can create out of filth, lies, theft and immorality.

[Oscillator]

Imagine the prime minister being framed in a money laundering case...n he says I had no knowledge...people close to me used my bank accounts for 5 years and did fraudulent transactions. I took money but it was agreed via verbal agreements that I wouldn't be liable to return any of it.

mr Prime Minister, you are no ordinary citizen...u are someone that 4 mn ppl look up to and work for...you are an able administrator jet setting to various countries....with access to HUGE sums of donated money. difficult to imagine u didnt know what was going on and that you would enter into verbal agreements for that sum of money and put your reputation at stake...

I'm an ordinary person with very less money and yet I will not enter into verbal agreements for money...and will surely figure out if someone is using my bank accounts for dubious transactions.

So am pained you allowed this....

Key question remains...what was the need to get into all this?

Not many in the Sangat will actually have the guts to accept these facts and will likely brush them under the carpet saying
" unki mauj"
"what he does in professional life is not important to us "
"Someone is framing him"
"Its all the divine plan"
" we shd not question"
"These things happens in businesses"

Sometimes our beliefs are like crutches. It's very very difficult to give them up. Not everyone's cup of tea.

It's possible that good things are being done by a person who is also doing unlawful things. The question is ...is that acceptable to you as a person that the person u place your trust in does this?

Till all have the courage to look the facts in the eye and question them unflinchingly....everything will continue as is.

Sad.

[Joshua]

This is to bring to the kind knowledge while reminding all our kind readers of this blog that
History is evidence that all Gurus , Mystics, Saints of all time and all the parts of this universe have suffered with false accusations to put them down and damage the pure moral image in one way or the other.
Reputable 10 Sikh Gurus suffered repeatedly including one of guru was pushed in the frying pan.
Even JESUS Christ suffered n’ crucified for no reason at all.
There is wonderful and amazingly stunning book “ WHY GOOD PEOPLE SUFFER “ was gifted By my father before he left this material world.
I highly recommend each n’ every reader here to go thru this book in its entirety before jumping in to any mis-Conclusion

[Karim W. Rahmaan]

The next hearing is February 5th, 2020.
https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/industry/healthcare/biotech/pharmaceuticals/radha-soami-chief-admits-to-financial-dealings-with-singh-brothers/articleshow/72058229.cms

Due process is a process. For those familiar with a larger view, and not the dogmatic scope of the Jedi.

[Dungeness]

3. That Gurinder, all knowing, did not take any money from anyone.

He did, though he claims the thieves hid the truth from him. Is that even possible for a Sat Guru? No it isn't.

The story whipsaws again. However, GSD's answer arguably only
signals: "I did not [knowingly] take [illicit] money from anyone".
That certainly has to be the intent of his response since by then
the context was a mammoth financial scandal.

The Dhillons et al are civilly liable for payment but as far as I'm aware
GSD has not been criminally charged nor has his immediate family.
Nor is it clear what was known about the criminal scheme, and to
whom. And when. Or if attorneys counseled their silence until more
details emerged.

By the way, there is evidence though of GSD's intent to pay debts in
his letter to Malva re: family agreement which proposes a return of
properties, etc, to "settle the accounts". How exculpatory or even
relevant that may or may not be remains in the court's purview.

As far as GIHF's reading "thieves' minds" to uncover their evil intent,
that's already been debunked. Non-believers jump to ridicule any
claim of omniscience. Believers on the other hand forget the outer
Guru doesn't look within and run to the racetrack to place winning
bets. He plays a role, and can be misinformed or fall ill, take medicine,
be misled, suffer financial losses. On the outside, totally ordinary.

So a rush to judgement, the moralizing, the faux outrage ring hollow.

[Nick GB]

What nonsense from die hard apologists! The key point that needs to be made over and over again is not guilt or innocence in a purely legal sense. The point is what is a spiritual teacher (who has presumably ceased over investment in gross materialistic attachment) doing being associated with business deals at this level.
Why this association. why this level of involvement even if it were all strictly legitimate? Why does anyone (let alone a guru) need a thousand times more than is necessary to live in absolute luxury? Why deals to further family interests beyond dealing with the collective group of devotees?
Just why this gross materialistic association? Exactly why this acquisitiveness? Don't play the silly card of it being 'lila' or guru's play! Don't play the silly card of 'innocence' either.
The key point has nothing to do as such with guilt or innocence and everything to do with 'right livelihood' as it is known in Buddihist teaching.
Does anyone apart from the sceptics here have any real response to this apart from daft metaphysics and cod blind faith? Suspect not.

[Um]

@ Joshua

All good people suffer,
i suffer
so i am a good person.

If you want to keep a person, in high regards, respect and love him … do so … as it is your gift.

In the old books it says to love one parents and not to kill, it doesn't say only the good ones and not the bad ones.

Again … love is a gift and one can give it to anybody ven fraudulent people, miserable parents as well … and not need that love to justify.

[Spence Tepper]

Hi Dungeness
It is true Gurinder offered to help Malvinder out. And probably because he made far more money than we know today using the loans and stock rights given by Mal and Shiv to him.

But if you claim there is a rush to judgment that is also a rush to judgment.

Today we only know that some of the money did go to him as reported by his own admission.

When he claimed he had taken nothing, after having received these huge loans, that was stimply a lie.

"I am not a crook!"
Nixon

"I didn't have sex with that woman"
Clinton

"I didn't take anything from anyone... Maybe I got some money from my parents..."
Gurinder.

It's no rush to judgment to say that was a Baldfaced and misleading lie. Right in the middle of Satsang.

But of course a Sat Guru can commit any crime, right?

Isn't that where your thinking is based?

[Nikhil]

Dear Blog Owner.
It is easy to put a blaim on anyone but very difficult to prove because more then 80 percent blaims are unjustified .
So justify and wait for court resuly.
Done become judge and dont give desicion, until and unless things would not be clear.
Stop trying to wash other minds without any reason.
Thanks

[Anon]

Have any of the commenters here with clear views even read the entire 74 page affidavit? Guys it’s 74 pages there is so much more information in there than the 2 pages writing on the news articles you are basing your opinions on. Gurinder Singh Dhillon will and has NOT done anything wrong and he has divulged that in his whole affidavit so I suggest read it and see for yourself. And now If you still conclude wrongdoing on points that are subject to interpretation then nobody can say anything to you for that as you have passed and decided judgement in the court of your own mind.

[Anon]

Spence for all the times you claimed that the Singh brothers are no longer liable to pay the debts to Daichi and how the garneshees have been made
Responsible well today the Supreme Court has found them guilty of contempt in the Daichi case. Wow how come?? I thought they were no longer responsible according to you??
I really suggest knowing information before you present it to readers (unsuspecting or otherwise)

[Sevadars_Inc]

It is true Gurinder offered to help Malvinder out. And probably because he made far more money than we know today using the loans and stock rights given by Mal and Shiv to him.

Today we only know that some of the money did go to him as reported by his own admission.

Posted by: Spence Tepper | November 15, 2019 at 06:48 AM

Spence,

So has GSD made a lot more money from only some money that went to him?

Which loans are you referring to here?

Stock options - as you refer it as, wasn't the upside a 50:50 sharing? So if GSD made far more money than we know (50% share) what did Singh Bros make?

[Sevadars_Inc]

"In short he received stolen funds and the options to discounted stock ( that are corporate liabilities from a corporate pool requiring board approval in publicly traded companies) ."

Spence, ,👆is what you said.

Me: questions-

1) the options to discounted stock - what financial instrument is this?
2) these are corporate liabilities. How does it become a liability?
3) discounted stock - discounted to what benchmark?
4) requiring board approval - what's your source?

Then you say

"The rights to option discounted shares were given to Gurinder without establishing his subscription as a principle of the company."

Me: What you mean by this?

[Spence Tepper]

Hi Sevadars Inc
1. Rights options
2. The options are like assets that when assigned become liabilities.
3. Discounted from current market price. The current stock price is today is 2,000 Rs per share. That's what we paid to buy this stock back from the market to keep the price from dropping further. We give you rights to buy the shares at 1,000 rupees. We automatically have a liability of 1,000 Rs per share you buy. But we have also recovered 1,000 RS.... Now if this is legal, you must wait three years to sell this stock. By that time, we hope, the value has gone up. So you are helping us cover some of the cost of our re-purchase, and stabilize our stock price. But for each share you buy, we still must book 1,000rs loss.

If they are paid for by stolen funds from the company it's a full loss of 2,000 rs for the company. If you obtained illegally your rights without limit and sell the stock today at 1,900 Rs you make 900 rs profit, but you have also reduced the value of our shares on the entire market by 100 rs per share. That's all the shares of the company.

It is normal for publicly traded composites to sell subscriptions to stock holders to purchase rights to buy these discounted shares. But they cost the company so they are limited number and only issued with board approval.

What Gurinder et al did was rob the corporations by gaming the system.

[Dungeness]

"I didn't take anything from anyone... Maybe I got some money from my parents..."
Gurinder.

It's no rush to judgment to say that was a Baldfaced and misleading lie. Right in the middle of Satsang.

But of course a Sat Guru can commit any crime, right?

The CONTEXT was a financial scandal. That was clearly what the
questioner was asking about. GSD said he didn't [knowlngly] take
anything [illicitly or untoward] from anyone.

He made it even clearer by mentioning his parents from whom he
did [or would] accept money gifted to him. Why parse his words so
literally unless as an entrapment mechanism...

The setting was a satsang devoted to discussion of spirituality. Why
not reassure listeners simply and affirmatively. He didn't want to
initiate a complex, legal discussion of financial loans or invite follow
on questions particularly if his attorneys had advised otherwise.

And no the Guru is not above the law. Let the courts adjudicate
the case.

[Jesse]

"GSD said he didn't [knowlngly] take
anything [illicitly or untoward] from anyone."

Thanks for filling in blanks and attributing charitable meanings to the guru's words. That's exactly what is needed.

[Spence Tepper]

Hi Dungeness
You wrote
"The setting was a satsang devoted to discussion of spirituality. Why not reassure listeners simply and affirmatively. He didn't want to initiate a complex, legal discussion of financial loans or invite follow on questions particularly if his attorneys had advised otherwise."

You had written
" GSD said he didn't [knowlngly] take
anything [illicitly or untoward] from anyone."

That isn't so. When he was handed" loans " claiming there was no obligation to repay, that's confusing.

Much easier is to say" yes I took hundreds of millions in gifts from my cousins. They asked me to invest it for them... I don't know why, so I took the money and invested it and the investments went bad. And now they are asking me to repay the investment costs. Shows what happens when you try to help out your relatives. Now I just tell them 'guys, investment isn't my bag, man. "

That would have been a tad more honest.

[PJ]

Instead of dwelling on GSd for a moment, I'm just thinking... what possible motivation could the brothers have for embezzling hundreds of millions to give to their master so he could invest it for them?

I mean, if they believe he can't make a mistake and they think he is GIHF, fair enough. But it was stolen money, so that doesn't make any sense.

Unless they had already stolen it and GSD said look, all this surplus money you've got, I'll handle this for you and deliberately flushed it away.

But then why the need for the shell companies? All in everyone's name but his?

[Spence Tepper]

Hi Anon
You asked
"Spence for all the times you claimed that the Singh brothers are no longer liable to pay the debts to Daichi and how the garneshees have been made
Responsible well today the Supreme Court has found them guilty of contempt in the Daichi case. Wow how come?? I thought they were no longer responsible according to you??"

The contempt decree was not because Shivinder et al haven't paid. That matter is now with the garneshees and Daiichi.

They were held in contempt because they had been ordered not to liquidate their assets, and they violated that.

They are not liable today for the money that is now demanded of the garneshees. But that is for the time being. It could change. The high court's orders to the garneshee's to pay was based on the court's determination that the loans have legal standing and are valid. But that was not a legal judgment in any case against the garneshees. No legal case had been initiated yet against the Garneshees except by Malvinder.

Whether the garneshees can be proven liable will be a matter for another case, should the evidence being gathered justify it.

What the court has done is open the door for Daiichi to sue the individual garneshees. This further establishes that there are grounds to consider the loans legally binding, or if not, that stolen goods still need to be returned.

Rest assured Shivinder et al are still on the hook for the fraud, and whatever funds can't be legitimately recovered from the garneshees. But as of the date the garneshees were ordered to repay, they carry the liability for the funds they took.

[PJ]

To exonerate GSD... literally EVERYONE around him would have to be 1/ corrupt af and 2/ not really believe or care that he is GIHF

It's possible... but Occam would cut himself shaving with this razor.

[Dungeness]

Much easier is to say" yes I took hundreds of millions in gifts from my cousins. They asked me to invest it for them... I don't know why, so I took the money and invested it and the investments went bad. And now they are asking me to repay the investment costs. Shows what happens when you try to help out your relatives. Now I just tell them 'guys, investment isn't my bag, man. "

That would have been a tad more honest.

Yes, and it would have sounded self-serving and like a defendant's courtroom
narrative. As I stated this was very probably intended as a brief assurance that
he had not committed wrongdoing. Likely brief and non-specific on advice of
an attorney.

It was almost certainly not intended to pique more questions or tedious "cross-
exams" and/or follow-on's from the garrulous that often plague those venues.
Participants had met for a discussion of spirituality and not to listen to a legal
back-and-forth by the curious.

[Spence Tepper]

Hi Dungeness
You wrote
"Yes, and it would have sounded self-serving and like a defendant's courtroom narrative."

Really? You think a straight out lie sounds better?

Well I may have been raised by wolves, but they weren't liars.

[Dungeness]

"Yes, and it would have sounded self-serving and like a defendant's courtroom narrative."

Really? You think a straight out lie sounds better?

At least when you keep it brief, the "barf factor" goes down.

Whadda you have to offer as an alternative.... a patronizing
rant about "trying to help relatives and it just not being my bag".

Yep, I'm sue the faithful would think "the Guru is sure a cool guy...
he explains things so well. "

[Abd AlRahman]

So so funny 😂!!!
While one group judges another, they are in turn oblivious of Jesus' words "judge not lest ye be judged". These Kaffir, those who believe only in what they can see, do not think judging others can hurt them. Even those who accept Prophet Muhammed, peace and blessings be upon him, know Allah, without whom there is no equal, the ONE single GOD , creator for All in this Universe, is "a God of Mercy" for those who beg for Mercy. I do not discuss issues here with any Kaffir.[ana Muslim]

[Spence Tepper]

"At least when you keep it brief, the "barf factor" goes down."

LOL!

Thank you Dungeness for that!

[Spence Tepper]

Hi Abd AlRshman
You wrote
"While one group judges another, they are in turn oblivious of Jesus' words "judge not lest ye be judged""

So then stop judging us.

[maninder]

my baba ji is pure 👍🏻👌🏻👌🏻