ED Seizes 132 Acres of Dhirubhai Ambani Knowledge City in Navi Mumbai
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has provisionally attached over 132 acres of land worth Rs 4,462.81 crore in Dhirubhai Ambani Knowledge City (DAKC) situated in Navi Mumbai. This action was taken under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) on Monday.
The agency recently attached 42 properties worth Rs 3,084 crore in the alleged bank fraud case of Reliance Communications Ltd. (RCOM), Reliance Commercial Finance Ltd., and Reliance Home Finance Ltd. These properties were connected to a house of Anil Ambani in Mumbai’s Pali Hill, the Reliance Centre property in Delhi, and other properties across Delhi, Noida, Ghaziabad, Mumbai, Pune, Thane, Hyderabad, Chennai, Kancheepuram, and East Godavari. The total attachment of properties in the group is now worth over Rs 7,500 crore.
According to the agency, they initiated the investigation based on an FIR registered by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) under Sections 120-B (criminal conspiracy), 406 (breach of trust), and 420 (cheating) of the Indian Penal Code, along with Section 13(2) read with Section 13 (1)(d) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, against RCOM, Anil Ambani, and others.
Reliance Communication and its group companies availed loans from domestic and foreign lenders during the period 2010 to 2012 onwards, with a total amount of Rs 40,185 crore outstanding. The agency further claims that the five banks have declared the loan accounts of the group as fraud.
The agency investigated the fraud and found that the loans taken by one entity from one bank were utilized for repayment of loans taken by other entities from other banks, transfer to related parties, and investments in mutual funds, which was in contravention to the terms and conditions of the sanction letter of the loans.
During further probe, the agency found that RCOM and its group companies allegedly diverted over ₹13,600 crore for evergreening of loans, over ₹12,600 crore was allegedly diverted to connected parties, and over ₹1,800 crore was reportedly invested in fixed deposits and mutual funds and others which was substantially liquidated for rerouting to group entities. There was a huge misuse of bill discounting for the purpose of funnelling funds to connected parties that has also been found by the agency during the probe. Even certain loans were siphoned off outside India through foreign outward remittances, as stated in the release. The total attachment in these cases stands at over Rs 7,545 crore.
RCOM has released a statement, “Reliance Centre-Delhi (RCD) and Dhirubhai Ambani Knowledge City (DAKC) at Navi Mumbai are Reliance Communication’s (RCOM) assets. Reliance Communication Ltd has been undergoing the corporate insolvency resolution process for over six years. The 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, six years ago”.
