New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has taken strong action against industrialist Anil Ambani and his Reliance group. Taking forward the investigation of money laundering, the ED has attached assets worth more than Rs 3,000 million on Friday. This includes Ambani’s Pali Hill House in Bandra, Mumbai and other flats, plots and offices of Reliance Communication and Reliance Infrastructure Limited in other cities including Delhi, Noida, Mumbai, Goa, Pune, Hyderabad and Chennai.
According to the news published in TOI quoting sources, Ambani’s office at Hotel Ranjeet in Reliance Center, Delhi, is one of the many properties attached by the ED in exchange for the alleged diversion of bank funds worth more than 20,000 crore.
Allegations of Rs 20,000 crore bank fund diversion
According to sources, Ambani’s office at Hotel Ranjeet in the heart of Delhi, the Reliance Centre — which is spread over three acres on Maharaja Ranjit Singh Marg, between the Ramlila Maidan and the Ranjit Singh flyover — is one of the many properties that the central agency has attached in lieu of alleged manipulation of bank funds worth over Rs 20,000 crore.
Sources said that the ED in its attachment order has alleged that Ambani group entities misused the bank’s money, which was later lent to fake group companies and wholly-owned subsidiaries, so that the proceeds could be grabbed. Sources said, a large chunk of corporate loans eventually reached the accounts of Reliance group companies, indicating round-tripping of funds following fund laundering.
More assets are likely to be attached in the coming weeks. Since July, the ED has conducted multiple searches on Ambani, his associates and group entities, including his Mumbai residence. He was also summoned to the ED headquarters in Delhi on 5 August and questioned. The ED’s probe under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act is based on two FIRs registered by the CBI against Ambani and his entities for alleged bank loan fraud.
Reliance Communication under scrutiny
Ambani has already been banned from travelling and cannot leave the country. His close aide Angarai Sethuraman is among many of his close aides, whom the ED has already questioned. Reliance Communication, a group unit of Ambani, owns the Reliance Centre office on Maharaja Ranjeet Singh Marg in Delhi. It is under investigation for alleged diversion of more than 13,600 crore funds.
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