NEW DELHI — The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has provisionally attached more than 132 acres of land worth Rs 4,462.81 crore in Dhirubhai Ambani Knowledge City, Navi Mumbai, under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, the agency announced Monday.
The latest action follows earlier attachments of 42 properties valued at over Rs 3,083 crore in connection with bank fraud cases involving Reliance Communications Ltd (RCOM), Reliance Commercial Finance Ltd, and Reliance Home Finance Ltd.
“With this, the total attachment in these cases stands at more than Rs 7,545 crore,” the ED said in its statement. “The agency remains committed to pursuing financial crime and returning the proceeds of crime to their rightful claimants.”
The probe stems from a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) case filed under sections of the Indian Penal Code and the Prevention of Corruption Act against RCOM, Anil Ambani, and others. The CBI’s First Information Report (FIR) alleged criminal conspiracy, cheating, and breach of trust.
According to the ED, RCOM and its subsidiaries obtained loans from domestic and foreign lenders between 2010 and 2012, leaving an outstanding amount of Rs 40,185 crore. Five banks have since declared the group’s loan accounts as fraudulent.
The investigation found that loans from one bank were often used to repay loans from another, transferred to related parties, or invested in mutual funds—actions that violated the terms of the loan agreements.
ED officials said RCOM and its group entities diverted over Rs 13,600 crore for loan “evergreening,” another Rs 12,600 crore to connected parties, and about Rs 1,800 crore into fixed deposits and mutual funds—most of which were later liquidated and rerouted to group companies. The agency also uncovered extensive misuse of bill discounting facilities to funnel funds to related entities, as well as instances of funds being siphoned abroad through foreign remittances.
Further investigation into the case is ongoing, the ED added.
