CBI files second chargesheet in Rs 7,429 crore RHFL fraud case
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) submitted its second chargesheet on Thursday against 11 accused, including three former executives of the Reliance ADA Group, in the loan fraud case involving the alleged diversion of `7,429 crore borrowed by Reliance Home Finance Ltd (RHFL). However, the chargesheet has not named Anil Ambani, chairman of the Reliance ADA Group.
The CBI has listed Amit Bapna, Director and Chief Financial Officer of RHFL; Amitabh Jhunjhunwala, Group Managing Director and Vice Chairman of RCL; and Suresh Nagarajan, CFO of Reliance Power Ltd, in the chargesheet submitted before a special court in Mumbai.
A CBI spokesperson stated that seven companies, Reliance Infrastructure Ltd, Reliance Power Ltd, Reliance Big Entertainment Pvt Ltd, Reliance Broadcast Network Ltd, Reliance Business Broadcast News Holdings Ltd, Reliance MediaWorks Financial Services Pvt Ltd and Kunjbihari Developers Pvt Ltd, and one private individual, Vijay Napawaliya, CA, who is the statutory auditor of RHFL, are also named as accused in the chargesheet.
The accused have been charged in a chargesheet for offences involving criminal conspiracy and cheating under the IPC; the investigation carried out to date has shown that funds totalling `7,429.16 crore, which Reliance Home Finance Ltd. had borrowed, were allegedly channelled via intermediary and conduit entities to various companies in the Reliance ADA Group in violation of the terms and conditions set out by the lenders, the spokesperson said.
The spokesperson said this resulted in “wrongful loss to the lending banks and financial institutions and corresponding wrongful gain to the accused persons and related entities”.
The agency registered the case after receiving complaints from the Union Bank of India (formerly Andhra Bank) and other banks in the consortium. On July 9, the agency submitted the first chargesheet in the case against four of the accused persons. By the time this chargesheet was filed, a total of 15 accused persons, including senior officials and those from the Group companies, had already been chargesheeted in the case.
The spokesperson added that further investigation is still ongoing to establish the role of the other accused persons and to look into the other allegations.
The CBI is investigating nine first information reports relating to Reliance Communications Limited (RCom), RHFL, Reliance Commercial Finance Limited (RCFL), Reliance Telecom Limited (RTL) and Reliance Capital Ltd (RCL), after receiving complaints from various public sector banks, LIC and EPFO.
The CBI had previously submitted six chargesheets in the Reliance ADA Group cases; the current one is the seventh chargesheet, and to date seven accused persons have been arrested,” the spokesperson said.
