New Delhi — Reliance ADA Group Chairman Anil Ambani has once again failed to appear before the Enforcement Directorate (ED) for questioning in connection with a Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) investigation tied to the Jaipur–Reengus highway project. The businessman was summoned to the agency’s Delhi office on Monday after missing a previous in-person hearing on Friday.
Ambani reportedly sought permission to attend Monday’s session via video conference, repeating a request the agency had already rejected. ED officials are seeking to record his statement as part of an investigation into allegations that approximately Rs 40 crore from the 2010 highway project, awarded to Reliance Infrastructure, was siphoned abroad through shell companies based in Surat and routed to Dubai.
Investigators believe the alleged transactions are connected to a broader international hawala network estimated to involve over Rs 600 crore.
In response to the ED’s summons, Reliance Group issued a statement saying Ambani remains willing to cooperate with the investigation. “Mr Anil Ambani has offered to make himself available for the recording of his statement, at any date and time suitable to ED, via virtual appearance or recorded video,” a spokesperson said.
The spokesperson clarified that Ambani is not a board member of Reliance Infrastructure and served only as a non-executive director between April 2007 and March 2022. “He was never involved in the day-to-day management of the company,” the statement added, further noting that the Jaipur–Reengus project was purely domestic with “no foreign exchange contract whatsoever.”
Monday’s development follows a nearly nine-hour interrogation of Ambani in August, tied to an alleged Rs 17,000 crore loan fraud involving Reliance Communications Ltd. (RCOM) and other group entities.
Earlier this month, the ED provisionally attached over 132 acres of land worth approximately Rs 4,462 crore at Dhirubhai Ambani Knowledge City in Navi Mumbai under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). This follows earlier attachments of 42 properties worth more than Rs 3,083 crore in cases against RCOM, Reliance Commercial Finance Ltd., and Reliance Home Finance Ltd., bringing the total value of attachments to over Rs 7,545 crore.
The ED’s investigation stems from a CBI FIR charging Ambani and others under sections of the Indian Penal Code and the Prevention of Corruption Act. Reliance Group companies reportedly availed loans totaling more than Rs 40,000 crore from domestic and foreign lenders beginning in 2010, with several banks having since classified the loans as fraudulent.
“The ED is actively pursuing perpetrators of financial crime and is committed to restituting the proceeds of crime to their rightful claimants,” the agency said in an official statement. (Source: IANS)
