Anil Ambani and his wife Tina Ambani have received fresh summons from the Enforcement Directorate to appear for questioning on February 17, according to PTI.
Before this, the ED had asked Tina Ambani to appear on Monday, but she skipped the appearance. Tina Ambani has been called for questioning in connection with a money trail linked to the purchase of a luxury condominium in New York’s Manhattan.
A response from the Reliance Group on the summon is awaited.
Meanwhile, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has constituted a special investigation team (SIT) to probe the alleged banking and corporate fraud worth Rs 40,000 crore involving the Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group (ADAG) and linked entities.
ED constitutes SIT following SC directive
The Supreme Court, while reviewing the ADAG case last week, directed the ED to constitute an SIT to undertake a “fair, independent, prompt and dispassionate” probe into the case. The Supreme Court directions came after the bench observed that the probe agencies have already taken time to start the probe.
The SIT is led by an additional director-rank officer in the headquarters investigation unit (HIU) of the federal probe agency and comprises about half a dozen other investigators, as per PTI report.
SC asks CBI to probe nexus and collusion
The Supreme Court had also asked the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which is also probing the group, to look into the nexus, collusion, connivance and conspiracy, if any, and take its investigations to their logical conclusion.
ED has attached Rs 12,000 crore assets in ADAG probe
The ED has been probing Anil Ambani and his Reliance Group companies since last year and has, till now, filed three Enforcement Case Information Reports (ECIRs), ED equivalent of police FIRs, under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), apart from attaching assets worth Rs 12,000 crore.
The SIT may file more ECIRs to go into the alleged illegalities and dubious financial transactions done by the ADAG group companies and their executives, the sources said.
Anil Ambani was questioned by the ED last year for alleged bank loan “irregularities” of his group companies. A former top executive of the company and ex-RCOM president, Punit Garg, has been arrested by it recently.
ED names RCom, RHFL, RCFL among firms in fund diversion probe
The ED had earlier said that it had detected “fraudulent diversion” of public money by various Reliance Anil Ambani group companies, including Reliance Communications, Reliance Home Finance (RHFL), Reliance Commercial Finance (RCFL), Reliance Infrastructure and Reliance Power .
The ED has earlier said in a statement that it was “actively” pursuing perpetrators of financial crimes and is committed to restituting the proceeds of crime to their rightful claimants in this case.
The Anil Ambani Group companies have denied any wrongdoing in the past.