Mumbai: Reliance Group chairman Anil Ambani on Friday skipped a summons from the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to appear in person at its Delhi headquarters. "No virtual appearance will be given to Anil Ambani, as requested," ED officials stated, confirming the agency had received an email from him regarding his availability via virtual means.
In a media statement, Anil Ambani said that he is "willing to offer to appear by virtual means," adding that he will "fully cooperate with the ED probe" being conducted under the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA)
The financial probe agency had summoned Ambani to appear in person on Friday to record his statement under FEMA.
The summons are part of a 15-year-old inquiry linked to the Engineering, Procurement, and Construction (EPC) contract for the Jaipur–Reengus (JR) Highway project. The ED suspects that funds worth around Rs 100 crore were allegedly remitted abroad via the hawala route. According to sources, the agency had already recorded statements of several individuals, including some alleged hawala operators, before deciding to summon Ambani.
On September 30, the ED conducted searches at six premises of Reliance Infrastructure Ltd (RInfra) and one of its former road contractors in Indore and Mumbai, as part of its probe into the alleged illegal remittances.
The current FEMA case concerns to the Jaipur–Reengus Toll Road, operated by JR Toll Road Pvt Ltd (JRTR), a subsidiary of RInfra under the Reliance ADAG group. In 2010, RInfra had awarded the EPC contract for the 52-km, four-laning stretch of National Highway-11 between Jaipur and Reengus in Rajasthan to Prakash Asphaltings & Toll Highways (India) Limited (PATH Group). The project was completed in 2013, RInfra clarified that this was a one-time domestic project and it has no ongoing relationship with PATH. The ED investigation is focused on alleged irregularities in cross-border transactions linked to this old contract, forming part of a wider probe into Reliance Infrastructure’s past financial dealings, specifically regarding overseas remittances related to the project.
The ED suspects that funds generated from the domestic EPC contract were siphoned off and transferred abroad through a complex hawala network. Officials said the alleged method involved inflating project costs, including raw materials, labor, and subcontracting, with excess funds diverted illegally. It is suspected that RInfra subcontracted parts of the project to other entities and routed the funds through Surat-based shell companies to obscure their origin before transferring them to Dubai. These shell entities, which reportedly have minimal or no legitimate business activity, were allegedly used to create a complex paper trail, making it difficult for authorities to trace the money back to its original source.
An ED official had said on November 3: “The search and seizure operation under FEMA in the case of Reliance Infrastructure Ltd. found Rs 40 crore siphoned from the Jaipur–Reengus highway project. Funds moved through Surat-based shell companies to Dubai. The trail has unearthed a wider international hawala network exceeding Rs 600 crore.”
RInfra described the ED action as “dated” and unrelated to foreign exchange, asserting that the EPC contract was “purely domestic” with no foreign exchange component whatsoever
The company also clarified Ambani’s role: “Mr. Anil D. Ambani, from April 2007 to March 2022, served as a non-executive director at Reliance Infrastructure and was not in charge of day-to-day operations. Mr. Ambani is not a member of the current board of Reliance Infrastructure.”
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The ED’s FEMA summons marks the latest scrutiny of Reliance Infrastructure’s projects. While Ambani has offered to cooperate virtually, the agency maintains that a physical appearance is mandatory, reflecting the seriousness with which it is investigating alleged cross-border financial irregularities.
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