The Enforcement Directorate has stepped into murky legal waters, summoning Senior Advocate Arvind Datar as part of its deepening investigation into a massive ESOP grant made to Rashmi Saluja, former chairperson of Religare Enterprises.
At the heart of this probe is a legal opinion Datar provided—one that greenlit the issuance of over 22.7 million stock options by Care Health Insurance, a Religare subsidiary. Those options, now under fire, were granted to Saluja in a move both the ED and the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) are now dissecting for potential violations of regulatory limits and financial probity.
The numbers are anything but trivial: the stock options in question were worth over ₹250 crore. IRDAI had already cracked down back in November 2023, ordering Care Health to not only cancel the remaining ESOPs but also claw back 7.57 million shares already handed out. The regulator cited a breach of guidelines, specifically those capping compensation to non-executive directors without prior approval.
Fuel was added to the fire when the Mumbai Police Economic Offences Wing filed a complaint, triggering a money laundering inquiry. By August 2024, the ED had raided multiple locations and frozen shares held by Saluja and other top executives.
Now, Datar’s involvement—via the legal rationale he provided—is under the microscope. The agency wants answers on whether his opinion was merely flawed or a cog in something more calculated.
This entire episode plays out against the backdrop of an intense boardroom battle. The Burman family, heavyweight shareholders in Religare, have been locking horns with Saluja’s now-ousted leadership. Their feud came to a head when Saluja attempted to block a boardroom reshuffle at the company’s 40th AGM, citing RBI restrictions on managerial changes. She lost that battle in court and was voted out.
As the legal and regulatory tides swell, the spotlight is now firmly on who said what, who signed off, and whether the law was merely stretched—or outright broken.
