New Delhi, Apr 28: The ED on Tuesday said it has attached a Mumbai flat belonging to industrialist Anil Ambani and a Khandala farmhouse held jointly by his son Jai Anshul Ambani under a Rs 3,034 crore worth attachment in a bank “fraud”-linked money laundering probe against Reliance Communications.
The provisional attachment under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) has been made to prevent dissipation of assets and to protect the interests of banks and the public, the Enforcement Directorate said in a statement.
Reliance Communications (RCOM) is a company of the Reliance Anil Ambani Group (RAAG).
According to a RAAG spokesperson, some of the attached properties belong to Kokilaben D Ambani, Anil Ambani’s mother.
The money laundering case stems from a clutch of CBI FIRs registered on the basis of the complaints of State Bank of India, Punjab National Bank, Bank of Baroda and Life Insurance Corporation of India against RCOM, Anil Ambani and others.
RCOM and its group companies availed loans from domestic and foreign lenders , of which, a total amount of Rs 40,185 crore is outstanding, according to the ED.
The central agency said a flat in Usha Kiran Building at Cumballa Hill in South Mumbai belonging to Anil Ambani, a farmhouse in Pune’s hill station of Khandala held in the name of Ambani’s son Jai Anshul Ambani and Luna Trust, and a land parcel in Ahmedabad’s Sanand area in the name of Mudra Foundation for Communications Research and Education (MICA) have been attached.
The attachment also includes 7.71 crore shares of Reliance Infrastructure Ltd, held by Risee Infinity, a group entity of Anil Ambani under the RiseE Trust umbrella. The ED said this was a private family Trust of Anil Ambani.
It stated that the RiseE Trust was established to “ensure” wealth preservation and resource generation by aggregating properties within the Trust and shielding it from the personal liabilities of Anil Ambani in the form of personal guarantees extended by him to lender banks against the loans sanctioned to RCOM.
“The properties were intended to be beneficially used and owned by the Anil Ambani family and not for the distressed public banks whose loans turned NPA,” it said.
The ED said it committed to restoring the allegedly defrauded assets in this case to the victims, which are the lender banks and financial institutions. Such a provision is available under Section 8 of the PMLA and it is called restitution of assets.
With the latest action, the total attachment of properties in the cases against the Reliance Anil Ambani Group stands at Rs 19,344 crore. The Group is being investigated by the ED on charges of bank fraud and diversion of funds.
Meanwhile, a RAAG spokesperson reacted to the development, saying some of the attached properties belong to Kokilaben D Ambani, Anil Ambani’s mother.
He added that the Usha Kiran and Khandala properties were “legacy family assets” acquired about four decades ago.
“MICA is an AICTE recognised charitable educational institution that has operated independently sine 1991. The shareholding of Risee Infinity Pvt Ltd has been publicly disclosed on the stock exchange since 2021,” the spokesperson said.
The affected parties will respond on the record before the Adjudicating Authority within the time prescribed by law, he said.
