ED summons Anil Ambani for questioning on November 14 in connection with money laundering probe

The latest summons comes nearly three months after Ambani was questioned for eight hours by ED in the same case.

The move follows the ED’s provisional attachment of more than 42 properties linked to him and his firms, valued at over Rs 3,083 crore, as part of the probe into companies of the Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group (ADAG).

According to ED, the investigation has revealed “fraudulent diversion of public money” by various ADAG entities, including Reliance Communications Ltd (RCOM), Reliance Home Finance Ltd (RHFL), Reliance Commercial Finance Ltd (RCFL), Reliance Infrastructure Ltd (R-Infra) and Reliance Power Ltd.

The agency said that before Yes Bank invested in ADAG companies, it had received substantial funds from Reliance Nippon Mutual Fund, which, under SEBI rules, could not directly invest or divert money into Ambani group finance firms due to conflict-of-interest restrictions.

“ED has detected a pattern of mala fide conduct, including pre-decided beneficiaries, fabricated paperwork, waived controls, and disbursals made ahead of approvals. This conduct enabled the siphoning of public funds through a web of related entities,” an agency spokesperson said.

The agency said an analysis of loan records of RHFL and RCFL showed that money was disbursed before formal sanction — an “impossible” sequence under prudent lending norms.

The spokesperson added that this indicated “back-dating and pre-decided payouts”.

ED further stated that RHFL and RCFL had borrowed from over 35 banks and financial institutions, with large portions of these loans either unpaid or diverted through onward lending to group companies and shell entities allegedly controlled by the Reliance ADAG.

“Public funds moved under the cover of corporate loans and inter-corporate deposits, passing from one company to another,” the statement said.

Ambani and his representatives are yet to respond to the latest ED action.