Former Fortis Healthcare promoters Malvinder Singh, his brother Shivinder and three others — arrested for alleged misappropriation of funds at Religare Finvest Limited (RFL) — were remanded to four days of police custody by a Delhi court on Friday.

Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Deepak Sherawat allowed custodial interrogation of the five people arrested by the Economic Offences Wing of Delhi Police.

Malvinder was arrested on Friday morning, while Shivinder, Sunil Godhwani, the former chairman and managing director of Religare Enterprises Limited (REL), Kavi Arora and Anil Saxena, who occupied important positions in REL and RFL, were arrested on Thursday by the EOW for allegedly diverting the money and investing in other companies, causing Religare losses of Rs 2,397 crore.

Hours before his arrest, Malvinder had moved the Delhi high court seeking to quash an FIR against him. His contention was that only the SFIO, which comes under the ministry of corporate affairs, could have investigated the allegations of fraud and cheating against him.

Justice Brijesh Sethi reserved the order on the plea after hearing arguments made on behalf of Malvinder Singh, and by the Economic Offences Wing of Delhi Police and RFL.

The police sought the custodial interrogation of the accused saying it was necessary as they were allegedly involved in the diversion of public money which needs to be tracked. They added that a lot of people are involved in the alleged cheating and misappropriation of funds.

Counsel representing the accused said their custody was not required as the evidence is documentary.