ED attaches RCom's land worth over ₹4,462 crore in money laundering case

New Delhi: The enforcement directorate (ED) has provisionally attached over 132 acres of land in Dhirubhai Ambani Knowledge City (DAKC), Navi Mumbai, Maharashtra, valued at approximately ₹4,463 crore under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.

This brings the total asset seizures to more than ₹7,500 crore in cases involving Reliance Communications Ltd (RCom), Reliance Commercial Finance Ltd, and Reliance Home Finance Ltd, the investigating agency said on Monday.

ED, in a statement, said that earlier it had attached 42 properties belonging to these companies in the case.

The 42 properties include Reliance Infrastructure Ltd’s multiple properties in Mumbai, Pune, Thane, Noida, Hyderabad, East Godavari and Goa.

They also include Nagin Mahal offices at Churchgate in Mumbai), flats in BHA Millennium Tower (Noida), Camus Capri Apartments (Hyderabad), land parcels in East Godavari, and premises in Pune and Thane, ED said in a separate statement earlier in the day.

ED initiated the investigation based on a central bureau of investigation (CBI) FIR under various provisions of the Indian Penal Code and the Prevention of Corruption Act.

RCom and its group companies allegedly availed loans from domestic and foreign lenders from 2010-2012 onwards, of which a total amount of ₹40,185 crore is outstanding, ED said.

Five banks have alleged that the loan accounts of the group are fraudulent, the investigating agency said.

Reliance Infrastructure Ltd informed stock exchanges on Monday, “We wish to inform that certain assets of the company have been provisionally attached by ED for the alleged violations under PMLA."

"There is no impact on the business operations, shareholders, employees or any other stakeholders of Reliance Infrastructure Ltd Anil D. Ambani is not on the Board of Reliance Infrastructure Limited for more than 3.5 years,” the company stated.

A person informed about the development said that Reliance Centre-Delhi (RCD) and Dhirubhai Ambani Knowledge City ((DAKC) at Navi Mumbai are Reliance Communication's (Rcom) assets.

“Reliance Communication has been undergoing the corporate insolvency resolution process for over six years. Matters pertaining to the resolution of RCom are sub judice before the NCLT and the Supreme Court of India. Anil D. Ambani served as a non-executive director on the board of RCom and resigned from this position in 2019,” said the person who spoke on condition of anonymity.

ED alleged, citing its investigation, that loans taken by one entity from one bank were utilised for repayment of loans taken by other entities from other banks, transfer to related parties, and investments in mutual funds, in contravention of the terms and conditions of the sanction letter of the loans.

ED alleged that RCom and its group companies diverted over ₹13,600 crore for evergreening of loans; over ₹12,600 crore was diverted to connected parties and over ₹1,800 crore was invested in FDs/MFs etc, which was substantially liquidated for rerouting to group entities.

“Huge misuse of bill discounting for the purpose of funneling funds to connected parties has also been detected by ED. Certain loans were siphoned off outside India through foreign outward remittances,” the investigating agency alleged.

The total attachment in these cases stands at around ₹7,545 crores. “ED is actively pursuing perpetrators of financial crime and is committed to restituting proceeds of crime to their rightful claimants. Further investigation is under progress,” added the agency.

ED is a multi-disciplinary organization probing into money laundering and violations of foreign exchange laws.