NIMMI SINGH: BACK AFTER 12 YEARS TO RAZE ANOTHER WALL
Nimmi Singh is back in action. The wife of the late Parvinder Singh, who played a role in the out-of-court settlement of a property dispute between her family and brother-in-law Analjit Singh 12 years ago, is now ready to drive another such settlement — between her sons, Shivinder Singh and Malvinder Singh.
Nimmi Singh is not a public person. If you Google her name, the last information you will find dates back to 2006, when she was filing FIRs and arguing her family’s right over some property on New Delhi’s upscale Aurangzeb Road.
A video on NDTV, from July 2006, shows her arguing with a mason laying a wall. “This is our land. Please take it out. This is my house at 1 Southend Lane,” she says in the video. Nimmi Singh was all over the place: Newspaper reports, a court case (as a co-petitioner with her sons in the Delhi High Court against Analjit), and interviews on news channels.
That was her first appearance in the news.
She had made no public appearance when the family split its business into three in 1989, nor when Bhai Mohan Singh and Parvinder Singh had an ugly fight over control of Ranbaxy four years later.
“I am thankful to Analjit for his cooperative, fair approach, and for successfully handling the complicated historical issues that have had to be dealt with in reaching this happy conclusion, not only for my sons and me but for our larger family,” Nimmi Singh was quoted as saying after the settlement, according to which a portion of the two residential properties under dispute went to Malvinder and Shivinder.
As a part of this settlement, the warring sides dropped as many as 33 suits, some of which dated back to 1993. Her husband had died in 1999.
Singh is the daughter of late Charan Singh, former head or “maharaj” of the spiritual sect Radha Soami Satsang Beas. Her marriage with Parvinder Singh was arranged by Bharat Ram’s wife, who was a devout follower of the “maharaj”.
It was only after marrying her that Parvinder Singh got associated with the satsang.
Over the years, the “maharaj” became his spiritual guru — to such an extent that there was a strong rumour at one time that Parvinder Singh would take over as the leader of the sect from his father-in-law.
However, her younger son Shivinder gave up his executive role at Fortis in 2015 to serve the sect full time.
Two executives — one serving and another retired — associated with the Singh brothers said Nimmi was always in the background, though she would attend some of the group’s functions.
She was never involved in the business. But, she has decided to involve herself again to bring down the second wall in her family, this time between her sons.