The bank accounts of Reliance Communication, Reliance Telecom and Reliance Infratel — all owned by Anil Ambani — have been classified as “fraud” the State Bank of India has told the Delhi High Court, opening up possibilities of a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation. The court has asked the bank to maintain status quo on the accounts. The development can bring serious trouble for Anil Ambani as now the bank can move for a banking fraud investigation by the Central Bureau of Investigation.
A bank account is declared fraud after it turns non-profitable assets (NPA). The State Bank of India informed the court that during the audit, they have found misappropriation of funds, diversion and siphoning of funds after which they have classified the accounts as fraud. As per the rule, once the bank has declared any account as fraud, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has to be informed in seven days and a complaint has to be filed before the Central Bureau of Investigation within 30 days of informing the RBI against the firms if the amount is of above Rs 1 crore. If the amount is less than one crore, the local police investigates the issue. Sources say the total amount which the three firms of Anil Ambani owe to the banks is over Rs 49,000 crore out of which Reliance Infratel has a debt of Rs 12,000 crore and Reliance Telecom owes Rs 24,000 crore.
