The directorate of enforcement (ED) has summoned several senior executives of the Anil Ambani-led Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani (ADA) group and is likely to call in top bankers for questioning as part of its ongoing money laundering investigation into alleged loan fraud involving group companies, say media reports.
According to a report from
Economic Times (ET), the summons, issued under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), include Reliance ADA group's vice-chairman Amitabh Jhunjhunwala and senior group official Sateesh Seth. Multiple executives, who were earlier subject to searches by the agency, are suspected of playing key roles in orchestrating transactions that allegedly cheated a consortium of banks.
As reported by
NDTV Profit, ED has written to the managements of 12–13 public and private sector banks, likely including State Bank of India (SBI), Axis Bank, ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, UCO Bank and Punjab & Sind Bank, seeking details of the due diligence and approval process for loans extended to Reliance Housing Finance Ltd (RHFL), Reliance Communications Ltd (RCom) and Reliance Commercial Finance Ltd.
The agency has requested information on loan sanction procedures, timelines of default and recovery actions initiated. Investigators are expected to summon bank officials if their responses are found unsatisfactory.
The latest action comes days after ED secured a lookout circular (LoC) against Mr Ambani in connection with the alleged Rs17,000-crore loan fraud case. Mr Ambani has been summoned to appear before the agency on 5 August 2025.
In recent months, ED has searched 35 locations in Mumbai linked to Reliance ADA group, covering 50 companies and 25 individuals. The probe has also unearthed connections between group entities and a fake Rs68.2-crore bank guarantee submitted to the Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI).
According to ED, the bogus guarantee was purportedly issued in the names of Reliance NU BESS Ltd and Maharashtra Energy Generation Ltd, both linked to the Anil Ambani group. Investigators allege that a spoofed email domain — 's-bi.co.in' — was created to mimic the official SBI address 'sbi.co.in', to convince SECI that the guarantee was genuine.
The bank guarantee was allegedly arranged by Biswal Tradelink Pvt Ltd (BTPL), an Odisha-based company. The ED, citing a first information report (FIR) filed by the Delhi police's economic offences wing (EOW) in November 2024, says BTPL provided the forged document along with fabricated SBI endorsements for a SECI tender, receiving Rs5.40 crore from Reliance Power Ltd for the service.
On 1 August 2025, ED arrested Partha Sarathi Biswal, BTPL’s managing director (MD), under the PMLA. The agency alleges the firm maintained seven undisclosed bank accounts, conducted transactions disproportionate to its declared turnover, and used dummy directors to sign documents.
Searches revealed that BTPL had no statutory records at its registered office, and violations of the Companies Act were also detected. The ED has traced proceeds of crime worth several crore to the undisclosed accounts. Mr Biswal has been remanded in custody until 6 August 2025.
The agency has sought domain registration records from the National Internet Exchange of India (NIXI) to trace the source and digital footprint of the spoofed SBI email domain.
Last month, the Union government confirmed in Parliament that SBI has officially classified the loan account of Reliance Communications Ltd (RCom) as 'fraud' and has reported the name of the company's former director Mr Ambani to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), following due regulatory process.
SBI’s total exposure to the troubled telecom company stands at over Rs3,000 crore. This includes Rs2,227.64 crore in fund-based principal outstanding, along with Rs786.52 crore in non-fund-based bank guarantees, the government says.
RCom, once a key player in India’s telecom sector, is undergoing corporate insolvency proceedings under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC). SBI's decision to declare the account as fraud marks a significant development in the prolonged financial saga surrounding the Mr Ambani-led company and comes years after the account was first declared a non-performing asset (NPA) in 2017, retrospectively dated to August 2016. (
Read: Anil Ambani Named in Fraud Account by SBI; Rs3,000 Crore Exposure Confirmed by Govt in Parliament)
With Mr Ambani scheduled to appear before investigators, and both bankers and senior executives now under formal summons, the ED probe is widening into what it suspects is a complex network of fraudulent loans, forged guarantees, and laundering of illicit funds.
The case, which spans corporate fraud, bank due diligence failures, and cyber-enabled deception, is being closely watched by regulators, the banking sector, and market observers.
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