The Enforcement Directorate raid on the companies of the Reliance Group Chairman Anil Ambani in Mumbai continued for the third day on Saturday. According to PTI, the ED has so far recovered multiple documents and computer peripherals from different locations.
The raids were launched on July 24, allegedly for money laundering case-linked to Rs 3,000 crore worth of bank loan, with other allegations of financial irregularities with crores of rupees by certain companies. The searches were conducted under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) and are going on at some locations out of over 35 premises that were covered in Mumbai since Thursday. These premises belong to 50 companies and 25 people, including a number of executives of the Anil Ambani Group companies.
Allegations of loan diversion and bribery
According to PTI report, the investigation is primarily based on illegal loan diversions of around Rs 3,000 crore of loan given by Yes Bank to a group of companies of Anil Ambani between 2017-2019. The ED sources told PTI that Yes Bank’s promoters allegedly received funds in their companies just before loans were approved. The agency is further investigating claims of major violations in the bank’s loan approval process, including backdated credit memorandums and investments made without proper due diligence. These loans were reportedly diverted to numerous group and shell companies. The agency is also scrutinising loans given to entities with weak financials, inadequate documentation and suspicious commonalities in addresses and directors.
Reliance Power and Reliance Infra respond
Reliance Power and Reliance Infrastructure, the two companies of the Anil Ambani group, on Thursday informed the stock exchange about the ongoing raids and stated that the raids had “absolutely no impact” on their business operations, financial performance, shareholders, employees or any other stakeholders.
The companies said, “The media reports appear to pertain to allegations concerning transactions of Reliance Communications Limited (RCOM) or Reliance Home Finance Limited (RHFL) which are over 10 years old.”
The companies also said in their filings before the stock exchanges that Anil Ambani was not on the Board of either Reliance Power or Reliance Infrastructure and that they had no “business or financial linkage” to RCOM or RHFL.
Any action taken against RCOM or RHFL, the companies said, has no bearing or impact on the governance, management, or operations of either Reliance Power or Reliance Infrastructure.
(With PTI Inputs)