ED constitutes SIT to probe multiple cases against ADAG
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has constituted a special investigation team (SIT) to probe the alleged banking and corporate fraud worth Rs 40,000 crore involving the Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group (ADAG) and linked entities, an official said on Monday.
The SIT is led by an additional director-rank officer in the headquarters investigation unit (HIU) of the federal probe agency and comprises about half a dozen other investigators, the official said. The Supreme Court, while reviewing cases against ADAG, last week directed the ED to constitute an SIT that will undertake a “fair, independent, prompt and dispassionate” probe into the case. It had asked the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which is also probing the group, to look into the nexus, collusion, connivance and conspiracy, if any, and take its investigations to their logical conclusion.
The ED has been probing Anil Ambani and his Reliance Group companies since last year and has, till now, filed three Enforcement Case Information Reports (ECIRs) — ED equivalent of police FIRs —under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), apart from attaching assets worth Rs 12,000 crore.
The SIT may file more ECIRs to go into the alleged illegalities and dubious financial transactions done by the ADAG group companies and their executives, the official said.
Ambani, 66, was questioned by the ED last year for alleged bank loan “irregularities” of his group companies. A former top executive of the company and ex-RCOM president, Punit Garg, has been arrested by it recently. The Anil Ambani Group companies have denied any wrongdoing in the past. The agency had earlier said that it had detected “fraudulent diversion” of public money by various Reliance Anil Ambani group companies, including Reliance Communications Ltd, Reliance Home Finance Ltd (RHFL), Reliance Commercial Finance Ltd (RCFL), Reliance Infrastructure Ltd (RIL) and Reliance Power Ltd (RHFL).
The ED has earlier said in a statement that it was “actively” pursuing perpetrators of financial crimes and is committed to restituting the proceeds of crime to their rightful claimants in this case.
