New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has issued fresh summons to Reliance ADAG Group chairman Anil Ambani to appear for questioning at its Delhi headquarters on Monday, according to reliable sources.
Ambani had sent a request via email for a virtual appearance before the ED on Friday in response to the earlier summons. However, the financial investigative agency rejected this request and decided to issue him another summons to appear personally on November 17, the sources said.
Anil Ambani, in a media statement, said that he is “willing to offer to appear by virtual means,” adding that he will “fully cooperate with ED on all matters.”
The statement claimed that the “ED summons to Anil D. Ambani relate to a Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) inquiry and not to any matter under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA)”.
The summons concerns a 2010 domestic EPC contract for the Jaipur–Reengus (JR) Toll Road and concerns issues associated with a road contractor, with no foreign exchange component, it said.
“Anil D. Ambani is not a member of the Board of Reliance Infrastructure. He served the company for about fifteen years, from April 2007 to March 2022, only as a non-executive director, and was never involved in the day-to-day management of the company,” the statement added.
The ED had summoned Anil Ambani again on November 14 for questioning in the money laundering case against the conglomerate. He faced a gruelling, around nine-hour interrogation regarding an alleged Rs 17,000 crore loan fraud case at ED headquarters in August.
However, he did not appear.
The development comes close on the heels of the ED provisionally attaching over 132 acres of land worth Rs 4,462.81 crore in the Dhirubhai Ambani Knowledge City at Navi Mumbai under the provisions of the PMLA.
The ED had earlier attached 42 properties worth over Rs 3,083 crore in the bank fraud cases of Reliance Communications Ltd. (RCOM), Reliance Commercial Finance Ltd., and Reliance Home Finance Ltd.
“The total attachment in these cases stands at over Rs 7,545 crore. ED is actively pursuing perpetrators of financial crime and is committed to restituting the proceeds of crime to their rightful claimants,” according to an official statement.
The ED had initiated an investigation based on CBI’s FIR under sections 120-B, 406 and 420 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 and section 13(2) read with section 13(1)(d) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1989, against RCOM, Anil Ambani, and others.
RCOM and its group companies availed loans from domestic and foreign lenders from the period of 2010-2012 onwards, of which a total amount of Rs 40,185 crore is outstanding. Five banks have declared the loan accounts of the Group as fraudulent, the statement said.
(IANS)
