The Enforcement Directorate (ED) questioned Reliance Group chairman Anil Ambani on Tuesday in relation to its money laundering investigation into a suspected ₹17,000 crore bank loan fraud case.
Ambani arrived at the ED office at 11 am and the interrogation went on for over nine hours, said people with information on the issue. Ambani has requested seven days to provide documents related to the questions the ED asked him, they added.
The agency will again call the 66-year-old business magnate after taking statement of credit committee members, said the people.
The ED will interrogate Amitabh Jhunjhunwala, who is a former close associate of Ambani, on Wednesday. It will interrogate another close associate Sateesh Seth of Reliance Group on Thursday.
ET was the first to break the story on August 1 that the ED had issued a summon to question Anil Ambani in relation to the alleged bank loan fraud case. ET was the first to break the story on Monday that the ED would call officials of private and public sector banks which had advanced loans to Reliance Group for questioning.
The agency will request information from the bank officials on the action taken by them, if any, against Anil Ambani's firms that defaulted on the loans, ET had reported.
"We would like to know what did the banks do to the companies which did not repay the loans they borrowed from them (banks). Did they report to the police, get registration of an FIR (first information report) done against the companies or not?" a top official had explained on condition of anonymity to ET.
Almost 20 public and private sector banks had extended loans to Anil Ambani's companies over a span of time that later became non-performing assets. Three companies of Reliance Group - Reliance Home Finance Limited (RHFL), Reliance Commercial Finance Ltd. (RCFL) and Reliance Communications (RCom) - were extended a combined amount of around ₹17,000 crore by the banks.
Based on information in its possession, ED says RHFL's outstanding loan was over ₹5,901 crore, RCFL's stood at around ₹8,226 crore, and RCom had nearly ₹4,105 crore due to it.
Apart from YES Bank, other banks that had extended loans to Reliance Group are State Bank of India, UCO Bank, Axis Bank, ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, Bank of India and Punjab and Sind Bank.
A look out circular (LOC) has also been put out against Anil Ambani at the behest of the ED. Moments after serving summons to Ambani last Thursday, the agency had sent a request seeking to issue an LOC against the industrialist.
The ED recently conducted searches at several entities and individuals associated with Anil Ambani's Reliance Group across 35 locations in Mumbai, involving 50 firms and 25 people, under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.
