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Mumbai, 6 March. The Enforcement Directorate (ED) is raiding the locations of Anil Ambani’s Reliance Power Company. At present, action is going on at 10 to 12 places. 15 ED teams have been raiding other locations including Mumbai and Hyderabad since this morning. According to sources, these raids are being conducted against people associated with Reliance Power Limited in the bank fraud and money laundering case to Reliance Communications Limited (RCom).

It is noteworthy that earlier on February 25, ED had temporarily attached Anil Ambani’s residential property ‘Abode’ located in Pali Hill, Mumbai, whose estimated value is Rs 3,716.83 crore, in the bank fraud and money laundering case to Reliance Communications Limited (RCom). With this, the total value of assets attached to this group so far has exceeded Rs 15,700 crore. ED’s Special Task Force Headquarters took this action under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002. Earlier, a part of the same property had been attached to the extent of Rs 473.17 crore.

Investigation has revealed that RCom and its group companies had taken huge loans from domestic and foreign banks and financial institutions. Of these, a total amount of Rs 40,185 crore is still outstanding, many of which have become NPA (Non-Performing Assets). The investigation also revealed that this Pali Hill property was transferred to a private family trust, which is linked to Anil Ambani’s family members. According to the investigating agency, the purpose of this corporate restructuring was to show that Anil Ambani has no direct connection with this property.

ED believes that the purpose of this arrangement was to conserve wealth and create resources by consolidating the assets and to protect it from personal liabilities which Anil Ambani had taken as personal guarantee against the bank loans given to RCom. The real use and benefit of this property was for the Ambani family, while the bad loans of public sector banks were not being settled.