The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has booked the son of industrialist Anil Ambani, Jai Anmol Anil Ambani, and Reliance Home Finance Ltd. (RHFL) in a case of alleged cheating in Union Bank of India that caused a loss of Rs 228 crore to the public bank, officials said on Tuesday.
The CBI acted on a complaint from the bank (erstwhile Andhra Bank) against Reliance Home Finance Ltd., Jai Anmol Anil Ambani and Ravindra Sharad Sudhakar, both directors in RHFL, they said.
The company had availed credit limits to the tune of Rs 450 crore from the bank's SCF branch in Mumbai for business needs, the complaint stated.
"A criminal case has been registered by CBI against M/s Reliance Home Finance Ltd. (a company of Reliance ADA Group), its promoters/Directors and unknown bank officials, on the basis of a complaint of Union Bank of India on the allegations of criminal conspiracy, cheating and criminal misconduct and thereby causing wrongful loss of Rs. 228.06 crores to Union Bank of India (e-Andhra Bank). The account of M/s Reliance Home Finance Ltd. was declared NPA on 30.09.2019 and as Fraud on 10.10.2024 by the Union Bank of India for causing wrongful loss of Rs. 228.06 crores to the Union Bank of India (e-Andhra Bank). M/s Reliance Home Finance Ltd. was availing loans to the tune of Rs. 5572.35 crores from 18 Banks / FIs / NBFCs / Corporate Bodies etc., including Union Bank of India. A thorough investigation will be conducted into the allegations of defrauding all the banks/FIs etc. by the accused company," the investigating agency said in a statement.
The bank had laid down the condition to maintain financial discipline including timely repayment, service of interest and other charges and submission of position of security and other required papers in time and routing the entire sale proceeds through the bank account.
The company failed to pay the instalments to the bank and hence, the said account was classified as a non-performing asset (NPA) on September 30, 2019, the officials said.
A forensic examination of the accounts was carried out by Grant Thornton (GT), for a review period from April 1, 2016 to June 30, 2019, which showed that borrowed funds were mis-apportioned and considered as diversion of funds, they said.
"The accused persons in their capacity of erstwhile promoters /directors of the borrower Company committed fraudulent misappropriation of funds through manipulation of accounts and criminal breach of trust and diverted/siphoned off the funds for the purposes other than the purpose for which finance was extended," the bank alleged.
