The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has provisionally attached 40 properties valued at around ₹3,000 crore in connection with a money laundering case involving the Anil Ambani-led Reliance Group.
The attached assets include Anil Ambani’s residence at Pali Hill in Mumbai and the Reliance Centre at Ranjit Singh Marg in Delhi. The ED also attached land parcels and residential properties across several cities, including Noida, Ghaziabad, East Godavari, Mumbai, Pune, Thane, Hyderabad, and 29 flats in Chennai valued at ₹109.6 crore. The attachments were made under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
According to officials, the seized properties comprise office spaces, residential units and land parcels, with a cumulative value of ₹3,084 crore.
The latest ED action is linked to allegations of fund diversion and money laundering by Reliance Home Finance Ltd (RHFL) and Reliance Commercial Finance Ltd (RCFL). Between 2017 and 2019, Yes Bank reportedly invested ₹2,965 crore in RHFL instruments and ₹2,045 crore in RCFL instruments.
By December 2019, these investments had turned non-performing, with ₹1,353.5 crore outstanding for RHFL and ₹1,984 crore for RCFL, according to the ED’s findings.
Investigators allege that more than ₹17,000 crore was diverted through a collective loan scheme involving various group companies, including Reliance Infrastructure.
In August, the ED questioned Anil Ambani following raids conducted on July 24 at 35 premises linked to 50 companies and 25 individuals associated with the group. Reliance Power and Reliance Infrastructure later informed the stock exchanges that the raids had “absolutely no impact” on their business operations, financial performance, or stakeholders.
The ED’s action followed a CBI FIR, after which the agency filed a chargesheet in September against Anil Ambani and others, alleging fraudulent transactions between RCFL, RHFL, and Yes Bank. The charges also named entities linked to former Yes Bank CEO Rana Kapoor and his family, citing a loss of ₹2,796 crore to the bank.
(By arrangement with livemint.com)
