New Delhi: The Central Bureau of Investigation Saturday raided premises linked to Reliance Group chairman Anil Ambani and group company Reliance Communications, as part of a probe into allegations of fraud, ThePrint has learnt.
The raids took place two days after the agency booked Ambani, his firm Reliance Communications, and unidentified public servants, based on a complaint by the State Bank of India, which had alleged fraud that had subsequently caused the bank a loss of Rs 2,929.05 crore. The agency acted Saturday after obtaining a search warrant from a Special CBI Court in Mumbai Friday, a spokesperson said.
The accused persons have been booked under sections dealing with offences such as criminal conspiracy, cheating, and criminal breach of trust, the agency spokesperson further said.
SBI had flagged the account of Reliance Communications as “fraudulent”, and informed that Ambani’s name would be reported to the Reserve Bank of India.
The development comes a month after Union Minister of State for Finance, Pankaj Chaudhary, informed the Lok Sabha that SBI had an exposure of around Rs 3,000 crore in Reliance Communications, and that the bank was in the process of filing a complaint with the CBI.
The due amount of nearly Rs 3,000 crore included the principal outstanding amount of Rs 2,227.64 crore, along with accrued interest and expenses, as of 26 August 2016, and a bank guarantee of Rs 786.52 crore.
CBI’s action coincides with a wide-ranging probe being carried out by the Enforcement Directorate against Ambani and his firms for allegedly siphoning off funds to the tune of Rs 17,000 crore, taken as loans from banks. ED’s money laundering case stems from a couple of FIRs filed by the CBI in September 2022 on complaints by the Yes Bank management that alleged quid pro quo transactions between Reliance firms and Rana Kapoor, the bank’s former managing director and CEO.
The agency had booked Reliance Home Finance, Kapoor and unidentified officials of these firms based on allegations that Yes Bank had invested Rs 2,965 crore in Non-Covertible Debentures of Reliance Home Finance Limited (RHFL) between 2017 and 2019, when Kapoor was heading the bank’s investment committee. These investments were later classified as non-performing assets amounting to Rs 1,353.50 crore, as of December 2019.
The latest FIR
The new FIR by CBI marks the third such instance for Ambani in three years.
Before reporting it to the CBI, SBI had already marked the account as fraudulent in November 2020.
However, in the wake of orders from Delhi High Court and Supreme Court regarding the classification of firms and promoters accused of committing fraud, the bank had reinitiated the process. SBI management issued a show cause notice to Reliance Communications and Ambani, along with a forensic report of the firm to the directors to explain their case.
Ambani then presented his case before the bank’s Fraud Identification Committee (FIC) in January and March this year.
According to the bank’s FIC, Reliance Infratel Limited (RITL) and Reliance Telecom Limited (RTL)—erstwhile subsidiaries of Reliance Communications—had received Rs 31,580 crore from banks, of which Rs 13,667 crore was used for repayment of loans, while Rs 12,692 crore was allegedly paid to connected companies.
The bank pinpointed transactions, such as a Rs 250 crore loan from Dena Bank in February 2017 to Reliance Communications to deal with “short-term cash flow mismatch and payment of dues, sundry creditors”. The bank alleged that Reliance Communications passed on the loan amount to its subsidiary, Reliance Communication Infrastructure Limited (RCIL), as an Inter-Corporate Deposit, while claiming that the funds were used to pay dues to BNP Paribas Bank.
The bank further found that India Infrastructure Finance Company Ltd (IIFCL), an NBFC, sanctioned Rs 248 crore to Reliance Communications for capital expenditure, which was passed on to its subsidiaries, RITL and RIEL, in the amounts of Rs 63 crore and Rs 77 crore, respectively.
The bank further alleged that there were inter-company loan transfers, in which Reliance Communications transferred Rs 783.77 crore to RTL, and Rs 1,435 crore to RITL from loans obtained from the banks.
ThePrint reached a spokesperson of Reliance Group via text, who refused to comment at this moment.
This is an updated version of the report.
(Edited by Mannat Chugh)