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).
The proceeds of crime in this
case have been quantified at Rs
40,185 crore and the ED has
attached assets worth Rs 8,078
crore. The agency, in the
chargesheet, has prayed for the
confiscation of these attached
assets.
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 tollroad projects -- Trichy-Karur
(NH-67), Trichy-Dindigul (NH45), 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 SeptemberOctober 2010 through sham,
post-facto or back-dated
arrangements for fictitious subcontracting work,” the agency
has alleged.
The money trail moved fromReliance 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.