New Delhi, Jan 28 (NationPress) The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has provisionally attached assets totaling Rs 1,885 crore belonging to Anil Ambani's Reliance Group. These assets include immovable properties, bank balances, receivables, and shareholdings in unquoted investments, as detailed in a statement from the agency on Wednesday.

The attachments are related to the Reliance Home Finance Ltd (RFHL), Reliance Commercial Finance Ltd (RCFL), and the Yes Bank fraud case, as well as the Reliance Communication Ltd (RCOM) bank fraud investigation, according to the statement.

The attached assets comprise shareholdings of Reliance Infrastructure Ltd in BSES Yamuna Power Ltd, BSES Rajdhani Power Ltd, and Mumbai Metro One Private Ltd, the statement indicated.

Additionally, a bank balance of Rs 148 crore and receivables amounting to Rs 143 crore have been provisionally attached in the hands of M/s Value Corp Finance and Securities Ltd. Moreover, a residential property owned by Angarai Sethuraman and shares/mutual funds held by Puneet Garg, both senior officials of the Reliance Group, have also been provisionally attached, as per the report.

Previously, the ED attached properties worth over Rs 10,117 crore in the bank fraud cases involving RCOM, RCFL, and RHFL. The overall group attachment has now escalated to approximately Rs 12,000 crore.

The agency has uncovered fraudulent diversions of public funds by several companies in the Anil Ambani Reliance Group, including RCOM, RHFL, RCFL, Reliance Infrastructure Ltd (RIL), and Reliance Power Ltd.

From 2017 to 2019, Yes Bank invested Rs 2,965 crore in instruments from RHFL and Rs 2,045 crore in RCFL instruments, which became non-performing investments by December 2019.

The outstanding amount stood at Rs 1,353.50 crore for RHFL and Rs 1,984 crore for RCFL. The ED investigation indicates that both received public funds exceeding Rs 11,000 crore. Before Yes Bank invested in the Anil Ambani group companies, it had received substantial funds from the now-defunct Reliance Nippon Mutual Fund.

According to SEBI regulations, the Reliance Nippon Mutual Fund could not directly invest or divert funds to Anil Ambani's group finance companies due to conflict-of-interest rules. Consequently, public money from mutual fund schemes was routed indirectly through the exposures of Yes Bank.

The ED has also launched an investigation based on an FIR filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation under various sections of the Indian Penal Code, 1860, and the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1989, against RCOM, Anil Ambani, and others. RCOM and its affiliated companies borrowed from both domestic and international lenders from 2010 to 2012, resulting in an outstanding total of Rs 40,185 crore. Nine banks have classified the loan accounts of the group as fraudulent.

The investigation has uncovered that loans acquired by one entity from a bank were used to repay loans from other banks, transferred to related parties, and invested in mutual funds, violating the loan sanction conditions. Specifically, RCOM and its affiliates diverted over Rs 13,600 crore for loan evergreening, over Rs 12,600 crore was diverted to connected parties, and more than Rs 1,800 crore was invested in fixed deposits/mutual funds, which were substantially liquidated for rerouting to group entities.

The ED has also detected significant misuse of bill discounting for funneling funds to related parties. Certain loans were funneled out of India through foreign remittances. Further investigations are ongoing, according to the statement.