ED files 2 chargesheets in Anil Ambani case
New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Sunday said it has filed chargesheets in two separate money-laundering cases involving companies and former executives of the Reliance Anil Ambani Group (RAAG).
In the first instance, a prosecution complaint was filed on Saturday before a special Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court in Dwarka against Reliance Infrastructure Limited, former Reliance Group executive Sateesh Seth (70) and others.
Seth was arrested by the ED in June and is currently lodged in jail under judicial custody. He left the Reliance Group in 2025.
The second instance pertains to a supplementary chargesheet filed by the federal agency before a special court at Rouse Avenue on Saturday in the case of Reliance Communications Limited (RCOM). The main chargesheet in this case was filed by the ED in March.
RCOM, Reliance Telecom Limited (RTL), former RAAG executives Seth, Gautam Doshi, Amitabh Jhunjhunwala and others have been named as accused in this prosecution complaint filed under the PMLA, the agency said in a statement.
Doshi was arrested by the ED in June and Seth in July, and they are currently in prison under judicial custody.
Doshi left the RAAG in 2020.
A statement from the Anil Ambani Group is awaited. A comment from the named former RAAG executives could not immediately be obtained.
The chargesheet in the first instance involving Reliance Infrastructure stems from a Mumbai Police Economic Offences Wing (EOW) FIR of February, where it was alleged that shell companies were incorporated and operated using forged documents and bank accounts for routing funds and outward remittances under the cover of fictitious invoices in over-valued diamond exports.
The ED said its probe has found that there was an “organised scheme” to “divert” public funds from four NHAI-awarded toll-road projects — Trichy-Karur (NH-67), Trichy-Dindigul (NH-45), Salem-Ulundurpet (NH-68) and Jaipur-Reengus (NH-11).
“The projects were financed through NHAI grants and loans from banks and financial institutions.
“About Rs 187 crore were siphoned during September-October 2010 through sham, post-facto or back-dated arrangements for fictitious sub-contracting work,” the agency has alleged. The money trail moved from Reliance Infrastructure or its project-specific special purpose vehicles or EPC contractors to construction contractors and thereafter, to shell entities having “no nexus” with road construction, it has added.
“Documents were subsequently created to portray the transfers as genuine project expenditure, while the funds were layered through shell entities and diamond traders,” the ED has said. The agency has said it has attached immovable assets and equity shares of Reliance Power Limited, held by Reliance Infrastructure, and land in the name of Ksheeraabd Constructions worth Rs 187 crore.