ED Attaches Rs 7,500 Cr Assets Linked to Anil Ambani in Bank Fraud; Reliance Infra Says 'No Impact on Business'
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New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has attached assets worth more than Rs 7,500 crore linked to Reliance Group chairman Anil Ambani, his group companies and linked entities in an ongoing money laundering case, it stated on Monday (November 3). The new sum comes after the agency provisionally attached properties worth Rs. 3,083 crore on October 31.
The assets include over 132 acres of land of Dhirubhai Ambani Knowledge City (DAKC) in Navi Mumbai worth over Rs. 4,462 Crores.
The agency had already provisionally attached as many as 42 immovable properties linked to the 66-year-old Ambani, including his family residence at Pali Hill, Bandra (West), the Reliance Centre on Maharaja Ranjeet Singh Road in New Delhi, and multiple residential and commercial properties across Delhi, Noida, Ghaziabad, Mumbai, Pune, Thane, Hyderabad, Chennai (including Kancheepuram), East Godavari and Goa.
The list includes 30 properties of Reliance Infrastructure Ltd, five of Adhar Property Consultancy Pvt Ltd, four of Mohanbir Hi-Tech Build Pvt Ltd, and one each belonging to Gamesa Investment Management Pvt Ltd, Vihaan43 Realty Pvt Ltd (formerly Kunjbihari Developers Pvt Ltd) and Campion Properties Ltd.
'No impact on business'
Meanwhile, Reliance Infrastructure Ltd released a statement to inform stock exchanges that there is "no impact on the business operations, shareholders, employees or any other stakeholders" of the company due to the case.
The company also stated, "Mr. Anil D. Ambani is not on the Board of Reliance Infrastructure Limited for more than 3.5 years."
The ED action is based on a First Information Report registered by the Central Bureau of Investigation against RCOM, Anil Ambani, and others, The Hindu reported.
“RCOM and its group companies availed loans from domestic and foreign lenders from the period of 2010-2012 onwards, of which a total amount of Rs 40,185 crore is outstanding. Five banks have declared the loan accounts of the Group as fraud,” the agency stated, as per the daily.
According to the ED, loans taken by one entity from one bank were utilised for repayment of loans taken by other entities from other banks, transfer to related parties, and investments in mutual funds, in contravention of the terms and conditions of the sanction letter of the loans.
“Huge misuse of bill discounting for the purpose of funneling funds to connected parties has also been detected by ED. Certain loans were siphoned off outside India through foreign outward remittances,” the probe agency alleged, as per a Mint report.
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