New Delhi: A fresh FIR by the CBI, followed by provisional attachment of his palatial Mumbai residence by the ED—Wednesday was a difficult day for Anil Ambani. But Thursday was worse. As he was being questioned by the ED at the agency’s HQ in Delhi, the CBI raided his home and offices of Reliance Communications in Mumbai.
The attachment of his residence in Mumbai’s Pali Hill by the ED was part of PMLA proceedings in a bank loan fraud case against him and RCOM. The ED, which opened three ECIRs against him last year, has to date attached assets totalling Rs 15,700 crore linked to him.
Sources in the agency said Anil Ambani has been asked to appear before the investigating officer again Friday. However, the questioning Friday will be in connection with the money laundering case related to Yes Bank.
The fresh CBI FIR, meanwhile, was based on a complaint by Bank of Baroda alleging RCOM and Ambani caused the bank a loss of around Rs 2,223 crore between 2013 and 2017.
Overall, the businessman faces four CBI cases, starting with two registered in 2022 for alleged collusion with former Yes Bank MD Rana Kapoor. The CBI had charged Anil Ambani and Rana Kapoor in those two cases earlier last year.
The latest CBI case was registered Wednesday at Bank of Baroda’s complaint, alleging RCOM’s loan account became a non-performing asset (NPA) in 2017.
In its complaint to the Bank, Security & Fraud (BS&F) branch of the central agency, Bank of Baroda alleged RCOM was sanctioned a credit facility of Rs 2,462.50 crore.
According to the complaint, RCOM suffered “significant deterioration in the financial and liquidity profile” because it did not utilise the funds for intended purposes. Coupled with cut-throat competition in the telecom sector, this resulted in severe stress in RCOM’s debt repayment account, which turned into an NPA in June 2017, the complaint said.
Overall, Bank of Baroda alleged in the complaint that RCOM and its subsidiaries, including Reliance Infratel Ltd (RITL) and Reliance Telecom Ltd (RTL), collectively received Rs 31,580 crore from a consortium of banks and financial institutions. However, it alleged that a majority of these funds were used to repay the firm’s debt or to invest in mutual funds, which were used for purposes not agreed to under the terms of the loans.
“Of these (Rs 31,580 crore), Rs 6,265.85 crore were utilised for repayment of other banks’ loans, Rs 5,501.56 were utilised for payment to related/connected parties and Rs 3,674.85 crore were invested in fixed deposits and mutual funds and these investments were liquidated immediately and utilised for payments to related and non-related parties which indicated that utilisation of the loan amount was not as per the terms of sanction,” Bank of Baroda alleged in its complaint to the CBI.
It further highlighted that it issued a showcause notice to Anil Ambani in January 2024 and another in August 2025, to which he sent responses which were considered.
Based on his responses, the bank reported the loan account to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) as fraudulent last September.
Anil Ambani challenged Bank of Baroda’s classification as fraud in the Bombay High Court which earlier this week vacated the stay imposed by a single-judge bench of the high court last year against proceedings initiated by the consortium of banks.
(Edited by Amrtansh Arora)
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