ED summons Anil, Tina in Rs 40,000cr bank fraud case

NEW DELHI: The ED has issued fresh summonses to Anil Ambani of Reliance group and his wife Tina for next week to appear at its headquarters in Delhi for questioning in connection with its ongoing probe of alleged laundering of Rs 40,000 crore by the industrialist and his entities.

The ED has already attached Rs 12,000 crore worth of assets of Anil and his Reliance group entities and is in the process of initiating further proceedings for their restitution to banks and other lenders once the authorities allow confiscation of the assets.

Anil, who has been questioned once in the ongoing probe last year, has been summoned again on Feb 18, while his wife Tina, who did not appear on the first summons on Monday, has been called again to join the investigation a day earlier, on Feb 17.

Meanwhile, Delhi HC has restricted the beleaguered industrialist from creating a third-party interest in the attached assets by further leasing them or creating any other interest. TOI reported on Tuesday the ED has entrusted its investigation against Anil to an SIT constituted on the direction of the Supreme Court to take the probe to its logical conclusion at the earliest.

Tina has been called for questioning in connection with the purchase of an apartment in Manhattan in New York. Her name came up during custodial interrogation of Punit Garg, a Anil confidant who was arrested last week.

Both CBI and ED, probing Anil and his entities, are looking to file multiple other cases against him since the allegations of diversion of funds concern more than a score of loans he took from different financial institutions. The Manhattan apartment, sources suspect, has been purchased using the alleged proceeds of crime siphoned off from the bank loans Reliance Communication had received from an SBI-led consortium.

The ED has come across a network of shell entities involved in money laundering, including the one that received the sale proceeds ($8.3 million) of the NY apartment "remitted from the US under the guise of a sham investment arrangement with a Dubai-based entity controlled by a Pakistan-linked individual".


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