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NEW DELHI: Businessman Anil Ambani has been summoned by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) for questioning on Nov 14 in the alleged SBI loan fraud-related money laundering case against him and his Reliance group, in which the agency attached properties worth Rs 7,500 crore last week. This is the second time he will be questioned by ED. On Aug 5, he was questioned for more than eight hours in another money laundering case, where he was asked about his foreign assets and transactions related to his group entities. Committed to restituting proceeds of crime to rightful claimants: ED on Anil Ambani case Just ahead of his questioning in Aug, ED had searched at least 35 premises in Mumbai (July 24-27), covering at least 50 entities and 22 individuals. During the exercise, the agency had seized several documents and digital records.On Monday, ED said it has attached the Dhirubhai Ambani Knowledge City, spread over 132 acres in the trans-Thane creek industrial area in Navi Mumbai and worth over Rs 4,462 crore, taking the total attachments against Ambani and his group to more than Rs 7,500 crore. The attachments were related to alleged involvement of Ambani and his group entity Reliance Communication Ltd in money laundering case.ED had stressed that it is “committed to restituting proceeds of crime to their rightful claimants”, an assertion that could lead to auction and sale of these attached properties after taking a clearance from courts. The agency claimed that there is more than Rs 40,000 crore outstanding against Ambani and his entities — the money he had borrowed from domestic and foreign lenders since 2010-2012. Banks have declared his group’s loan accounts as fraud. The department had said, “Investigation has revealed 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 to terms and conditions of sanction letter of loans.”In its first order on Oct 31, ED attached properties worth over Rs 3,000 crore, which included his Reliance Centre office in Delhi’s Maharaja Ranjit Singh Marg area, worth over Rs 2,100 crore, besides flats and offices in cities, including Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Hyderabad. Ambani and RCom, Reliance Commercial Finance Ltd and Reliance Home Finance Ltd are among other group entities accused in two CBI FIRs, the basis of ED’s probe under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.A spokesperson for Ambani had earlier said that “Reliance Centre-Delhi and Dhirubhai Ambani Knowledge City at Navi Mumbai are RCom’s assets, which are currently undergoing insolvency. Matters pertaining to the resolution of RCom are sub-judice before NCLT and SC”.
