New Delhi, November 4: India’s Enforcement Directorate (ED) said on Monday it had provisionally attached assets worth about ₹7,500 crore ($900 million) allegedly linked to the Reliance Anil Ambani Group, as part of an ongoing investigation under the country’s anti-money laundering law.
The assets, spread across Delhi, Noida, Ghaziabad, Mumbai, Pune, Thane, Hyderabad, Chennai (Kanchipuram) and East Godavari in Andhra Pradesh, include more than 132 acres of land belonging to the Dhirubhai Ambani Knowledge City in Navi Mumbai, valued at over ₹4,462 crore.
The ED said the attachment is connected to a probe into bank fraud cases involving Reliance Communications Ltd. (RCOM), its promoters, and group companies. The investigation is based on a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) complaint alleging that RCOM and its affiliates availed loans from domestic and foreign lenders between 2010 and 2012, with ₹40,185 crore still outstanding. Five banks have classified the loan accounts as fraudulent, the agency said.
The agency alleged that the group’s companies — including Reliance Communications, Reliance Home Finance Ltd. (RHFL), Reliance Commercial Finance Ltd. (RCFL), Reliance Infrastructure Ltd. (RInfra), and Reliance Power Ltd. — diverted public funds through a complex web of transactions.
According to the ED, loans taken from one bank were used to repay borrowings from others, transferred to related parties, or invested in mutual funds, in violation of lending conditions. The agency alleged that over ₹13,600 crore was used for evergreening loans, ₹12,600 crore was diverted to connected entities, and ₹1,800 crore invested in financial instruments later rerouted to group firms. Some funds were allegedly siphoned off abroad through foreign outward remittances.
During 2017–2019, Yes Bank invested ₹2,965 crore in RHFL and ₹2,045 crore in RCFL instruments, which later turned non-performing, the agency said. It alleged that the two firms raised over ₹10,000 crore from more than 35 banks and financial institutions, much of which was diverted.
The ED further cited irregularities in loans issued to companies such as Crest Logistics, Species Commerce, and several RPL group entities, claiming that loans were sanctioned within a day and without due diligence. The agency said at least ₹1,460 crore was routed to Reliance Infrastructure Ltd. through CLE Pvt. Ltd., pointing to layering and round-tripping in the fund trail.
In a related case under the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA), the ED said it found that ₹40 crore was siphoned from the Jaipur–Reengus highway project through shell firms in Surat and routed to Dubai, revealing a hawala network exceeding ₹600 crore.
Reliance Infrastructure Ltd. said in a stock exchange filing that the ED’s action had no impact on its operations, employees, or stakeholders, adding that Anil Ambani had not served on its board for more than three and a half years. Ambani resigned as a non-executive director of Reliance Communications in 2019, the company said.
