NEW DELHI: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) carried out fresh raids as part of a money laundering investigation into the alleged diversion of funds at two former Reliance Anil Ambani Group companies, seizing documents and property records, the agency said on Wednesday.
The raids were carried out on Tuesday.
The federal agency said it searched the premises of E-Complex Private Limited and the residence of one of its directors on July 7 as part of its long-running probe into Reliance Home Finance Limited (RHFL) and Reliance Commercial Finance Limited (RCFL).
The searches yielded evidence of suspicious transactions and assets allegedly linked to the Reliance Anil Ambani Group, the ED said.
The agency launched the probe based on multiple cases registered by the Central Bureau of Investigation on behalf of a consortium of lenders, including State Bank of India, Bank of Baroda, Punjab National Bank, Yes Bank, Axis Bank and several other state-run banks.
The ED alleged that public funds worth thousands of crores of rupees raised by RHFL and RCFL were funnelled through a network of shell and group companies controlled by the Reliance Anil Ambani Group.
According to the agency, loans were sanctioned to these entities without adequate due diligence or assessment of creditworthiness, while the borrowers had little or no capacity to repay.
The agency said the shell companies' directors were employees or close associates of the group and that their bank accounts and books were maintained by officials of flagship group companies, including Reliance Infrastructure Limited, Reliance Power Limited and Reliance Capital Limited.
The ED has quantified the total proceeds of crime in the case at Rs 15,548 crore. It said it has attached properties worth Rs 4,510 crore so far, of which assets worth Rs 3,926 crore have been confirmed by the PMLA Adjudicating Authority.
The agency filed a prosecution complaint before a special PMLA court on June 12.
Two former executives — Amitabh Jhunjhunwala, a former director of Reliance Capital Limited, and Amit Bapna, its former chief financial officer — were arrested in April in connection with the case and remain in judicial custody, the ED said.