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Mumbai: A special court under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) in Mumbai has taken cognisance of a money laundering complaint filed by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) against former Religare Enterprises Ltd (REL) executive chairperson Dr Rashmi S... Mumbai: A special court under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) in Mumbai has taken cognisance of a money laundering complaint filed by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) against former Religare Enterprises Ltd (REL) executive chairperson Dr Rashmi Saluja and four others, including senior advocate Pratap Venugopal, a former retainer for REL and former independent director of Care Health Insurance Ltd (CHIL).The ED, in its prosecution complaint, has alleged that Venugopal acted in collusion with Saluja and former REL executive Nishant Singhal to obtain legal opinions aimed at overcoming objections raised by the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) to the grant of employee stock option plans (ESOPs) to Saluja.“…accused No.5 in active collusion with accused Nos.1 and 2 orchestrated the procurement of legal opinions without any mandate, authorisation or resolution from the Board of Directors of CHIL with a clear motive of overturning the directions of IRDAI with respect to grant of ESOPs to accused No.1 and, as part of a quid pro quo arrangement, accused No.1 orchestrated the appointment of accused No.5 to the Board of CHIL, wherein he made monetary gains of Rs 60 lakh,” the ED alleged before the court.According to the agency, legal opinions from former bureaucrat J. Hari Narayan and senior advocate Arvind Datar were procured without any board mandate or authorisation from CHIL. The ED further alleged that Hari Narayan’s opinion was shared with Datar without obtaining consent from either the author or CHIL, and that drafts of Datar’s opinion were accessed and edited by Saluja and her associates, thereby compromising the independence of the opinion.Venugopal, however, has strongly denied the allegations, arguing before the court that the claims against him are “preposterous, mala fide and misconceived”.According to his submissions, he was appointed as an additional non-executive and independent director of CHIL in September 2022, served for over two years and resigned in January 2025.“The allegations against accused No.5 are contrived, devoid of merit, perverse and unsupported by any material on record. Obtaining a legal opinion and acting upon it does not constitute an offence,” his counsel submitted.Venugopal’s defence argued that he acted in good faith and within the scope of his professional responsibilities when he facilitated legal opinions from two eminent experts. The defence maintained that he was specifically instructed by CHIL’s Chief Legal and Compliance Officer, acting through REL’s Group Legal Head, to obtain independent legal opinions after IRDAI declined approval for the ESOP proposal.According to the submissions, Venugopal coordinated the preparation of the statement of facts in consultation with REL and CHIL officials, forwarded documents to Hari Narayan and Datar, and merely facilitated the opinion process. The defence pointed out that the Nomination and Remuneration Committee (NRC) minutes of June 2, 2022 recorded that CHIL had obtained two legal