Reliance Group Chairman Anil Ambani, who was scheduled to appear before the Enforcement Directorate (ED), has requested the agency to allow him to appear through virtual means. Ambani has written to ED to cooperate fully on all matters.
An Ambani spokesperson said the ED had summoned him in connection with a probe into the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) and not the PMLA as several reports suggested. The spokesperson said the FEMA case relates to a matter relating to the Jaipur-Reengus Expressway project.
“The case is 15 years old, dating back to 2010 and concerns issues relating to a road contractor. In 2010, Reliance Infrastructure Ltd. awarded an EPC contract for the construction of the JR Toll Road (Jaipur-Ringus Expressway). It was a purely domestic contract, without any foreign exchange component. The JR Toll Road was fully completed and as of 2021, it is with the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) for over four years,” the spokesperson said.
Anil Ambani is not a member of the board of directors of Reliance Infrastructure and has served the company for around 15 years, from April 2007 to March 2022, only as a non-executive director, the spokesperson said. He was never involved in the day-to-day management of the company, the statement added.
According to a report in NDTV Profit, the agency is unlikely to accept the request and will likely offer another date.
Meanwhile, the ED had seized over 132 acres of land belonging to Dhirubhai Ambani Knowledge City (DAKC) in Navi Mumbai worth Rs 4,462.81 crore earlier this month. The action was part of the bank fraud case involving Anil Ambani’s Reliance Communications Ltd (RCom).
The ED said the cumulative seizure of the group’s properties now stands at over Rs 7,500 crore.
According to the ED, RCom and its group companies availed loans worth Rs 40,185 crore from domestic and foreign lenders between 2010 and 2012. Five banks declared the loan accounts fraudulent. The investigation revealed large-scale embezzlement.
