Mumbai, Jan 28: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has provisionally attached assets worth Rs 1,885 crore belonging to companies and individuals linked to the Reliance Anil Ambani Group, in connection with alleged bank fraud cases involving Reliance Home Finance Limited (RHFL), Reliance Commercial Finance Limited (RCFL), Yes Bank and Reliance Communications Limited (RCom).
Provisional attachment orders issued
The attachments were made through four provisional attachment orders issued under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). The assets include bank balances, receivables, shareholdings in unquoted entities and immovable properties, the agency said on Wednesday.
Details of attached properties
Officials said the attached properties include the shareholding of Reliance Infrastructure Ltd in power distribution companies BSES Yamuna Power Ltd and BSES Rajdhani Power Ltd, as well as Mumbai Metro One Pvt Ltd. The ED has also attached bank balances of Rs 148 crore and receivables worth Rs 143 crore held by Value Corp Finance and Securities Ltd.
Assets of senior group executives attached
In addition, the agency has provisionally attached a residential property belonging to Angarai Sethuraman, a senior official of the Anil Ambani Group, along with shares and mutual fund investments held by Puneet Garg, another senior group executive, as part of its ongoing probe into the alleged fraudulent diversion of public funds.
Sethuraman, a former director of Reliance Capital and Group President (Corporate Affairs), is under investigation in connection with a Rs 22-crore home loan from Reliance Capital and the alleged siphoning off of an additional Rs 18 crore in public funds from RCFL. Garg, the executive director and CEO of Reliance Infrastructure and a non-executive director of Reliance Power, is under scrutiny for investments linked to group firms.
Total attachments near Rs 12,000 crore
With its latest action, the ED has attached assets worth nearly Rs 12,000 crore in cases linked to the Reliance Anil Ambani Group. The ED had earlier attached assets worth over Rs 10,117 crore in bank fraud cases related to RCom, RHFL and RCFL.
Yes Bank investments under scanner
As part of the probe, the ED examined investments made by Yes Bank, which invested Rs 2,965 crore in RHFL instruments and Rs 2,045 crore in RCFL instruments between 2017 and 2019. By December 2019, these investments had turned non-performing, with outstanding amounts of Rs 1,353.50 crore in RHFL and Rs 1,984 crore in RCFL, officials said.
The ED’s probe revealed that RHFL and RCFL had received public funds exceeding Rs 11,000 crore. Before Yes Bank invested this money in Reliance Anil Ambani Group companies, it had received significant sums from the erstwhile Reliance Nippon Mutual Fund.
Alleged routing of public funds
“As per SEBI regulations, Reliance Nippon Mutual Fund could not directly invest in Anil Ambani Group finance companies due to conflict-of-interest norms. Therefore, public money was allegedly routed indirectly through Yes Bank exposures, following a circuitous route,” the ED claimed.
Separate probe based on CBI FIR
Separately, the ED has initiated a probe based on an FIR registered by the CBI under provisions of the Indian Penal Code and the Prevention of Corruption Act against Anil Ambani, RCom and others.
According to the agency, RCom and its group companies availed loans from domestic and foreign lenders from 2010–12 onwards, with Rs 40,185 crore currently outstanding. As many as nine banks have declared the group’s loan accounts as fraud.
Alleged diversion and evergreening of loans
The probe revealed that loans taken by one entity were allegedly used to repay loans of other group entities, transferred to related parties or invested in mutual funds, in violation of loan terms. The ED alleged that over Rs 13,600 crore was diverted for evergreening of loans, more than Rs 12,600 crore was routed to connected parties and over Rs 1,800 crore was invested in fixed deposits and mutual funds, which were later liquidated and rerouted.
The agency also alleged misuse of bill discounting mechanisms to funnel funds to related parties and said certain loans were siphoned off abroad through foreign outward remittances.
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Probe to continue
The ED said it is continuing its investigation and remains committed to tracing proceeds of crime and restoring them to rightful claimants.
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