SEBI v. Ballinder Singh Dhillon and others (Fortis Healthcare fund diversion, settlement, 2022)

Settled

✓ Checked against the primary document on October 9, 2026. The library's summary, tags and figures for this record were compared with the regulator's own document by an AI model (Claude) following written instructions, in a single reading of the order; an independent second reading of 60 SEBI records agreed on every field for 56, the four misses being penalty amounts; a later sample of 50 of the SEBI records added on 9 October agreed on every field for 46. No lawyer has reviewed them. A checked record can still contain errors, and checked does not mean endorsed. See how we check records or report a correction.

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In January 2022 SEBI settled adjudication proceedings against three former Fortis Healthcare figures and Religare Finvest Limited over alleged diversion of public shareholders' funds to the promoters' group. The four paid Rs 4.34 crore in total, neither admitting nor denying the allegations.

The record

What was ordered

Civil penalty

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Disgorgement

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Prejudgment interest

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Total relief

—

Alleged gain

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Penalty as published

43.4m INR

A dash means the release did not state a figure we could extract, not that the figure is zero. Penalty and disgorgement are stored separately so aggregates across the library do not double-count the same dollars. This regulator states penalties in INR. The figure is recorded as published and is not converted, so it does not appear in the USD totals or medians used elsewhere on this site.

What is alleged to have happened

The settlement order was issued by a SEBI adjudicating officer on 31 January 2022, recording that it was passed on 25 January 2022. It covers Ballinder Singh Dhillon, Sandeep Puri, Aditya Vij and Religare Finvest Limited, in the matter of Fortis Healthcare Limited.

SEBI had investigated the alleged siphoning of funds by Fortis Healthcare's promoters and related entities after a February 2018 media article that alleged at least Rs 5 billion had been taken out of the company. A show cause notice of 9 April 2021 alleged, among other things, that non-independent directors of the subsidiary Fortis Hospitals, including Mr Vij and Mr Puri, and Mr Dhillon as a member of its executive or treasury committee, failed to exercise due diligence over loans and investments to three borrower companies and so aided the diversion of shareholders' funds for the benefit of the promoter group.

The notice also alleged that Religare Finvest acted as a conduit for routing funds from Fortis to RHC Holding, and that Mr Puri, as a chief financial officer, gave misleading certificates in annual reports. The provisions cited included section 12A(a), (b) and (c) of the SEBI Act and Regulations 3(b), 3(c), 3(d) and 4(1) of the PFUTP Regulations, along with listing agreement and LODR provisions. These were allegations that the settlement did not resolve into findings.

The applicants proposed to settle without admitting or denying the facts and conclusions of law. The order records settlement amounts of Rs 93,50,000 each for Mr Dhillon and Mr Puri, Rs 65,02,500 for Mr Vij and Rs 1,82,32,500 for Religare Finvest, Rs 4,34,35,000 in total. The High Powered Advisory Committee recommended the terms in November 2021, the panel of whole time members approved them on 22 November 2021, and SEBI confirmed receipt on 25 January 2022.

The order disposes of the adjudication proceedings under the show cause notice, with SEBI reserving the right to restore them if representations prove untrue or undertakings are breached. The record does not show how much money was diverted according to the final investigation, what happened to the promoters and other noticees in separate proceedings, or any criminal case.

This library applies no technique tag to the matter, because the settled allegations concern diversion of company funds, which fits none of the library's manipulation techniques. The tagging is ours, not the regulator's.

For the regulator's own account of the facts, read the primary document linked above. This page deliberately summarises the structured record rather than reproducing the order.

Timeline

1. 2022-01-31 SEBI settlement order

Primary documents

Everything on this page derives from the documents below. Where our summary and the primary document disagree, the primary document is right.

• SEBI order

The linked release is published by the issuing regulator under its own terms. Our summary and narrative above are our own writing.

Record added October 8, 2026. submit a correction.