Malvinder Singh is one of the main accused in the alleged fraud case.

A Delhi court today extended the police custody of three people, including former Ranbaxy promoters Malvinder Singh and Shivinder Singh, on charges of allegedly misappropriating funds at Religare Finvest Limited to the tune of Rs 2,397 crore.

Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Deepak Sherawat issued the directive after police sought two days of additional custody, so the accused could be questioned on "new material" that has come up in the case. During the hearing, Malvinder Singh's lawyer said that they have decided against opposing the police's plea in the interests of extending full cooperation to the investigators.

Other than the Singh brothers, the court extended the police custody of Religare Enterprises Limited (REL) chairman and managing director Sunil Godhwani. Religare Finvest Limited is the lending arm of REL.

The court also ordered that two other officials, Kavi Arora and Anil Saxena, be sent to two-day judicial custody.

The five were earlier sent to four-day police custody in the case, which has cast a shadow over one of India's most prominent business families. While Shivinder Singh did not resist arrest, his older brother approached the Delhi High Court with a plea for the cancellation of the police case filed against him by the Economic Offences Wing (EOW). He claimed that the complaint against them can be investigated only by the Serious Fraud Investigation Office under the central government, given that the EOW because it doesn't have the "jurisdiction" to do so.

The Singhs were charged with cheating, fraud and misappropriation of funds five months after Religare Finvest Limited filed a complaint against them in December. Delhi Police maintains that it needs to conduct custodial interrogation of all the accused to unearth the money trail in the case.

(With inputs from PTI)