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 Informist, Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2026

 

--SC to ED: Form SIT to take probe on Anil Ambani, his cos to conclusion 

--CONTEXT: SC order on PIL for probing bank fraud by Anil Ambani, his cos 

--SC to CBI: Look into collusion by bank officers in Reliance cos bank fraud 

--Anil Ambani to SC: Will not leave country without court's permission

 

NEW DELHI – The Supreme Court Wednesday asked the Enforcement Directorate to constitute a special investigation team of senior officials to take all necessary steps to bring the bank fraud investigation against Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group, its Chairman Anil Ambani, Reliance Communications Ltd., and related entities to a logical conclusion. The bench led by Chief Justice of India Surya Kant criticised the Enforcement Directorate over its "explained" delay in conducting a probe against the Reliance group companies.

 

The top court directed the Central Bureau of Investigation to probe the conduct of bank officials to check whether funds were released to Reliance companies in collusion with bank officers. The court said the CBI must look into the nexus, collusion, or conspiracy between bank officials and Reliance companies, and take all lawful measures needed to conclude the probe.

 

Both the CBI and Enforcement Directorate have taken their own time to take action and therefore, the court expects both agencies to act impartially and dispassionately in its probe, said Justice Kant. He asked the probe agencies to file status reports regarding their probe within four weeks.

 

The court was hearing a public interest litigation filed by former government secretary E.A.S. Sarma, seeking a court-monitored probe into an alleged large-scale bank fraud by Ambani and his companies. The petitioner Wednesday expressed concerns that due to the amount allegedly involved, there is every likelihood of Ambani fleeing the country. On this, Ambani's counsel gave an undertaking saying that his client will not leave the country with the court's permission. 

 

At the outset, Solicitor General of India Tushar Mehta, appearing for both the probe agencies, said that the funds allegedly siphoned off through bank loan frauds by Reliance group companies amounted to around INR 400 billion. Mehta said forensic audits by banks stated that money was taken from one bank by Reliance companies to repay loan in another bank. Advocate Prashant Bhushan, appearing for the petitioner, said the Enforcement Directorate's report indicated that at least INR 260 billion had been siphoned offshore by the Reliance companies, and that not a single penny had been repaid. An amount of INR 1.78 trillion in dues of Reliance group companies is pending in insolvency proceedings before the tribunal, and Ambani, whom he described as the "kingpin", has not been arrested till date, Bhushan said. He added that only one official, Punit Garg, a former Reliance Communications director, was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate, and that too just two days earlier, ahead of the hearing in the matter.

 

On the argument that Reliance companies were fetching less amount from what they owed and were sometimes being bought by relatives, Chief Justice Kant remarked that unfortunately the corporate insolvency resolution process was being misused. Audits for the debt-ridden company was done at undervalued levels and somebody from the family would come and buy the assets, said Chief Justice Kant, adding that even the conduct of the resolution professionals was not good. On this, Mehta said that the Centre was also considering this issue, adding that "haircut" was phenomenal when a company was sold through the insolvency process.

 

In the present matter, the investigating agencies have overlooked the five-year delay in filing the first information report by State Bank of India, which clearly indicates involvement of bank officials and other public servants, whose conduct enabled, concealed or facilitated the fraud, said the petitioner. Despite being in possession of the 2020 forensic audit report, based on which the complaint was filed and which contains details about issues regarding diversion, evergreening, fictitious transactions and use of shell entities, SBI chose not to take statutory action till August 2025, the petitioner added.

 

The delay in filing the first information report cannot be explained without examining whether officers of the bank acted in collusion or with deliberate intent to shield the borrower group, said the petitioner. The CBI and the Enforcement Directorate have entirely failed to investigate this institutional angle, thereby excluding from scrutiny the public officials whose complicity or wilful inaction forms an essential part of the criminal conspiracy, said the petitioner. Since these bank officials are "public servants" under Section 2(c) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, their omissions and commissions attract offences under the Act, making the failure of these agencies to investigate them a grave legal deficiency, Sarma added.

 

The case relates to Reliance Communications Ltd. and its group entities, Reliance Infratel Ltd. and Reliance Telecom Ltd., borrowing INR 315.80 billion from a consortium of banks led by SBI between 2013 and 2017. SBI, through its Deputy General Manager Jyoti Kumar, registered the first information report on Aug. 21, 2025. The complaint alleged criminal conspiracy, cheating, criminal breach of trust and criminal misconduct by Reliance Communications, Anil Ambani and other unknown public servants and individuals, resulting in a wrongful loss of INR 29.29 billion. The first information report was based on a forensic audit report covering the period 2013 to 2017.

 

At 1242 IST, shares of SBI were up 0.4% at INR 1,068.60 on the National Stock Exchange, and those of Reliance Communications were up over 3.9% at INR 1.07.  End 

 

IST, or Indian Standard Time, is five-and-a-half hours ahead of GMT

 

Reported by Surya Tripathi

Edited by Tanima Banerjee

 

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