The Enforcement Directorate (ED) officially announced on Thursday that it has attached assets worth more than Rs 1,400 crore belonging to Anil Ambani-led Reliance Group entities and its associated companies in the money-laundering probe linked to alleged loan fraud.
However, the Reliance Group issued a clarification on the attachment of assets, distancing itself from the Reliance Communications. A spokesperson of the group stated that the attached assets belong to RCOM, which has not been part of the Reliance Group since 2019.
The latest seizure by the ED includes multiple properties spread across Navi Mumbai, Chennai, Pune and Bhubaneswar, which are collectively valued at about Rs 1,452 crore. The move came weeks after the ED’s earlier round of attachments across major Indian cities.
It may be recalled that on November 3, the Central agency had attached assets and properties worth around Rs 7,500 crore. The latest action takes the total value of attachments to nearly Rs 9,000 crore.
In its initial order, the ED had stated that it had provisionally attached 42 properties worth over Rs 3,083 crore belonging to entities linked to the Reliance Anil Ambani Group. These properties include a residence at Pali Hill in Mumbai, the Reliance Centre in New Delhi, besides multiple office spaces, residential units and land parcels across Delhi, Noida, Ghaziabad, Mumbai, Pune, Thane, Hyderabad, Chennai, Kancheepuram and East Godavari in Andhra Pradesh. The total value of these assets was about Rs 3,084 crore.
Later, the ED attached more than 132 acres of land in Dhirubhai Ambani Knowledge City (DAKC) in Navi Mumbai, worth Rs 4,462.81 crore, under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
According to the ED, loans taken by one Anil Ambani group entity were diverted to repay loans of other group entities, and then transferred to related parties or invested in mutual funds, which violated loan sanction conditionalities.
The ED has alleged that Anil Ambani-linked Reliance Communications and its group firms diverted more than Rs 13,600 crore for evergreening of loans, over Rs 12,600 crore to connected parties, and more than Rs 1,800 crore into fixed deposits and mutual funds, much of which was later liquidated and rerouted to group entities.
The ED stated that it uncovered large-scale diversion of public funds by several group companies, including Reliance Communications, Reliance Home Finance, Reliance Commercial Finance, Reliance Infrastructure and Reliance Power.
The ED investigation began after the CBI registered an FIR under sections of the Indian Penal Code and the Prevention of Corruption Act against Reliance Communications, Anil Ambani and others for alleged criminal conspiracy, cheating and corruption.
In its clarification on the attachment of assets, the Reliance said RCOM has been undergoing Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process for over six years under the supervision of the NCLT and Supreme Court. The company is currently managed by a Resolution Professional appointed by a consortium of lenders led by State Bank of India.
The group’s spokesperson emphasized that Anil Ambani has had no involvement with RCOM since resigning six years ago in 2019. The statement also clarified that the attachment order does not affect Reliance Infrastructure and Reliance Power, both of which continue normal operations.
“Ambani has not served on the boards of either Reliance Infrastructure or Reliance Power for over three and a half years. The group assured stakeholders that both companies remain focused on growth and operational excellence,” read the press note.