ED attaches assets worth Rs 1,452 crore in case involving Anil Ambani’s Reliance Group
NEW DELHI: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has attached fresh assets worth more than Rs 1,452 crore linked to Reliance Group Chairman Anil Ambani, his group companies, and associated entities as part of a money-laundering probe. Prior to this, the financial investigative agency had attached properties worth Rs 7,545 crore in the same case.
The agency said it has provisionally attached multiple buildings in the Dhirubhai Ambani Knowledge City (DAKC) and Millenium Business Park in Navi Mumbai, as well as plots of land and buildings in Pune, Chennai, and Bhubaneswar, cumulatively valued at Rs 1,452.51 crore, under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002.
Earlier, the agency had attached properties worth over Rs 7,545 crore in the alleged bank fraud cases of Reliance Communications Ltd (RCOM), Reliance Commercial Finance Ltd, and Reliance Home Finance Ltd.
ED initiated the investigation on the basis of an FIR registered by the CBI against RCOM, Anil Ambani, and others.
According to officials, RCOM and its group companies availed loans from domestic and foreign lenders from 2010–2012 onwards, of which a total of Rs 40,185 crore remains outstanding. Nine banks have declared the loan accounts of the group as fraud.
ED’s investigation revealed that loans taken by one entity from one bank were utilised for the repayment of loans taken by other entities from other banks, transferred to related parties, and invested in mutual funds, in contravention of the terms and conditions of the sanction letters of the loans.
In particular, RCOM and its group companies allegedly diverted over Rs 13,600 crore for evergreening of loans; over Rs 12,600 crore was allegedly diverted to connected parties; and more than Rs 1,800 crore was invested in fixed deposits and mutual funds, which were substantially liquidated for rerouting to group entities. The ED has also detected huge misuse of bill discounting for the purpose of allegedly funnelling funds to connected parties.
Certain loans were siphoned off outside India through foreign outward remittances.
The total attachment in these cases now stands at ₹8,997 crore. The agency said it is “actively pursuing perpetrators of financial crimes and is committed to restituting Proceeds of Crime to their rightful claimants”.