Anil Ambani Reliance group stocks slip up to 3% as ED attaches fresh assets

Reliance Communications shares fell 2.3 per cent on the BSE, hitting an intra-day low of ₹1.24 after the Enforcement Directorate (ED) said it had provisionally attached fresh assets linked to its money-laundering probe into alleged bank fraud involving Anil Ambani’s Reliance Group.

 

At 10:20 AM, Reliance Communications was trading 2.36 per cent lower at ₹1.24 on the BSE, while the BSE Sensex was down 0.36 per cent at 85,321.18.

 

The news also weighed on other Anil Ambani-led group stocks. Reliance Infrastructure declined 3.49 per cent, and Reliance Power slipped 0.92 per cent.

ED action on Reliance Communications

On Thursday, the ED said it had provisionally attached additional assets worth ₹1,452.51 crore as part of its money-laundering investigation into alleged bank fraud connected to Anil Ambani’s Reliance Group.

 

The attachment covers multiple properties linked to Reliance Communications (RCom) and other group entities, including buildings at Dhirubhai Ambani Knowledge City (DAKC) and Millennium Business Park in Navi Mumbai, as well as land parcels and assets in Pune, Chennai and Bhubaneswar.

 

The action was taken under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002. Earlier this month, the agency had attached assets worth over ₹7,545 crore in related bank fraud cases involving RCom, Reliance Commercial Finance and Reliance Home Finance. With the latest move, the total value of attached assets stands at around ₹8,997 crore.

 

According to the ED, RCom and its group firms borrowed from domestic and overseas lenders from 2010–12 onwards, with outstanding dues now at ₹40,185 crore. Nine banks have classified the group’s loan accounts as fraudulent, it said.

 

The agency alleged extensive diversion of funds, including using loans from one lender to repay another, routing money through related parties and investing in mutual funds in breach of loan covenants.  

It claimed that:

• Over ₹13,600 crore was used to “evergreen” loans.
• More than ₹12,600 crore was diverted to connected entities.
• Around ₹1,800 crore was parked in fixed deposits and mutual funds before being liquidated and redirected.

The ED also said there was “huge misuse” of bill discounting to funnel funds to related parties, and that some loan proceeds were siphoned overseas via outward remittances. 

Shortly after the ED’s announcement, the Reliance Group issued a clarification stating that the attached assets relate solely to RCom and are not linked to its current businesses.

 

“Reliance Group would like to clarify that as per ED's own media release, the attached assets belong to Reliance Communications (RCom), which has not been a part of the Reliance Group since 2019 — i.e. for the last six years,” the company said, adding that RCom has been under insolvency proceedings for the same period.