Enterprising brothers.

Price of shares of Fortis Healthcare jumped yesterday even though the Bombay Stock Exchange index, the Sensex, fell by over 400 points. Why did Fortis share jump by 24% in a falling market? It was because the founders, brothers Shivinder and Malvinder Singh, resigned from the board. The brothers were forced to resign after a Delhi High Court judgement against them, directing them to pay Rs 35 billion to Daiichi Sankyo Co. The case goes back to 2008 when the brothers sold a pharmaceutical firm Ranbaxy to Daiichi without informing them of an investigation by the Food and Drug Administration in the US. In 2016, an arbitration court in Singapore agreed with Daiichi and ordered the brothers to pay a fine of Rs 25.62 billion to the company. In 2013, Ranbaxy agreed to pay a fine of $500 million to the US Department of Justice for misrepresentation of facts. The resignation of the brothers is not the end of the story. It is alleged that the brothers diverted $78 million, or Rs 5 billion, from Fortis to their private accounts, without knowledge of the board. Fortis auditors, Deloitte Haskins & Sells LLP refused to sign off on Fortis second quarter results unless the money was accounted for or returned. Is that it? A US based private equity firm, Sigular Gugg & Co has filed a suit in Delhi High Court accusing the brothers of fraud. They are accused of diverting $300 million from Religare, a publicly traded financial services company, to their own accounts. It is interesting that the brothers readily paid $500 million fine in the US but are continuing to fight in India. That maybe because they are terrified of US justice but know that they can easily game the system here. The joke is best illustrated by the filing of an appeal by the CBI in the Supreme Court in the Bofors case, 12 years after the charges were dismissed by Delhi High Court. The CIA reported in 1988 that Sweden stopped investigation into bribes paid to Indian officials to spare Rajiv Gandhi from embarrassment because he was instrumental in a massive cover-up to protect his friend Ottavio Quattracchi. Quattracchi is dead, so why waste time and money on a ridiculous appeal. Officers of CBI, our highest investigating agency, have been accused of taking bribes in the recent past. Its incompetence in the Aarushi murder case was cited by Mallya's defence lawyer in a London court. While 75% of people do not report crimes to the police because they are unhelpful, the traffic police in Delhi are celebrating a record of Rs 1 billion collection from fining motorists. The Singh brothers should refrain from going abroad. They will be safe within India, no matter how many billions they have diverted. Enjoy the cash.