Anil Ambani Appears Before ED in ₹17,000 Cr Loan Fraud Case

Reliance Group Chairman Anil Ambani has reached the ED office in Delhi. Here he will be questioned in connection with the investigation of the Rs 17000 crore loan fraud case. Anil Ambani was summoned last week as part of the ED's alleged money laundering investigation. The companies that were questioned include Reliance Home Finance Limited (RHFL), Reliance Commercial Finance Limited (RCFL) and Reliance Communications (RCom).

What Is the Allegation?

• Reliance Home Finance Limited (RHFL) – ₹5,901 crore default

• Reliance Commercial Finance Limited (RCFL) – ₹8,226 crore default

• Reliance Communications (RCom) – ₹4,105 crore default

The allegation is that these companies of Anil Ambani's Reliance Group have taken loans worth thousands of crores of rupees from banks and have not used that money properly. That is, the purpose for which the loan was taken was not fulfilled, instead that money was diverted through shell companies.

Apart from this, the ED investigation has also revealed the use of many fake documents and bank guarantees.

This ED investigation, initiated under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), is related to loans taken from about 20 private and government banks, which have now turned into non-performing assets (NPAs).

According to the ED investigation, RHFL owes Rs 5,901 crore, RCFL more than Rs 8,226 crore and RCom about Rs 4,105 crore.

Why Is Anil Ambani Being Questioned?

The ED has recently arrested Partha Sarathi Biswal, managing director of a company called BTPL in this case. The investigation revealed that this company had received about Rs 5.4 crore from Reliance Power to create a fake bank guarantee. In fact, Reliance Power had participated in a government tender, for which it was necessary to provide a bank guarantee.

BTPL was contacted in connection with this work. It used a fake domain similar to SBI's official domain to make its fake bank guarantee look real.

ED is now trying to find out who played what role in this entire fraud, where did the money come from, where and how was the transfer done, who all are involved in this. Now since Reliance Power's name has also come up in the case and many transactions related to the company are under investigation, ED has summoned Anil Ambani.

What will be ED's next step for Reliance Group?

People aware of the matter told The Economic Times that in the coming time, ED can call senior officials of banks and inquire about the entire process of giving loans, the time limit for default, the action taken after that. The banks giving loans to Reliance Group companies include Yes Bank, State Bank of India, Axis Bank, ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, Bank of India, UCO Bank and Punjab and Sind Bank.

A senior official, on condition of anonymity, told ET, "We want to know what action, if any, the banks have taken against the defaulting companies. Have they filed any complaint with any investigating agency seeking registration of a criminal case against these companies?"