CBI Books RCOM, Anil Ambani in ₹2,929 Crore SBI Loan Fraud Case; Searches Premises

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Saturday conducted searches in Mumbai in premises related to telecom company Reliance Communications Ltd (RCOM) and Anil Ambani as part of its investigation into the alleged bank loan fraud case involving an FIR registered based on a complaint made by the State Bank of India (SBI), CBI officials said.

The CBI officials, as it is considered, had conducted the searches to the official premises alongside with the premises related to the RCOM and to the residential premises of the Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Group chairman Anil Ambani.

It first filed the first information report (FIR) in the matter on Thursday and on Friday got the search warrants by a special CBI court in Mumbai.

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The FIR has referred to a complaint by the deputy general manager Jyoti Kumar of SBI on August 18 “regarding the alleged offences of criminal conspiracy, cheating, criminal breach of trust and criminal misconduct by accused company M/s Reliance Communication Ltd. and its Director ShrI Anil Ambani, unknown public servants and unknown others”. The bank claimed that it was cheated of Rs. 2929.05 crore.

FIR has been reviewed by FHT.

The FIR reported that the accused along with his coteries defrauded the SBI by getting credit facilities in favour of RCOM on misrepresentation and misutilised or diverted the money obtained by the bank.

“The allegations pertain to misutilisation and or diversion of loan funds, potential routing of loan funds, inter-company loan transactions, misutilization of sales invoice financing, discounting of bills of RCOM by M/s Reliance Infratel Ltd., movement of funds through inter corporate deposits, write off of capital advances given to M/s Netizen Engineering Pvt Ltd - a group company of Reliance ADA Group, and creation/write off of fictitious debtors,” a CBI official said, citing the FIR.

The loan accounts were recognized as fraud, as per the Reserve bank of India (RBI) directives under Master Directions of Fraud Risk management and the SBI policy on classification, reporting, and management of frauds, which was approved by its Board.

Reliance Communications, in its regulatory filing later, reported to have received a letter dated June 23, 2025, issued by SBI on the case.

The finance ministry, responding to an unstarred question in the written form last month, said the SBI credit exposure on Reliance Communications include a fund-based principal outstanding that will total a sum of 2,227 crores as liabilities as well as accrued interest and expenses as on August 26, 2016, in addition to a non-fund-based Bank Guarantee of 786 crores.

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The company was dragged under the Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016.

In an earlier case, ED conducted searches in Delhi and Mumbai at official premises of various firms related to the Group last month as part of its money-laundering investigation of bank loan default and other financial malpractices.

The RCOM or the Group has made no comment.

But following the ED searches in July, one of the Reliance Group office bearers, who did not wish to be identified, said, “Anil Ambani resigned from the board of RCOM in 2019. Presently, Anil Ambani is not on the board of any Reliance Group companies”.

According to this individual, RCOM was not a constituent of Reliance Group which has to date two listed companies namely Reliance Infrastructure Ltd and Reliance Power Ltd.

“Reliance Communications Limited (RCOM) has been under the Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process (CIRP) pursuant to the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016, for over six years. State Bank of India (SBI) did not grant Anil D. Ambani an opportunity for a personal hearing before its committee made its decision in the matter.”

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