Reliance Group Chairman Anil Ambani appeared before the Enforcement Directorate’s (ED) office in Ballard Estate, Mumbai on Thursday in connection with Yes Bank debacle. The unit calls Ambani for questioning under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002. Earlier, he was asked to be present before ED on Moday, but sought for exemption on personal ground.
Union Finance Minister, Nirmala Sitharaman held a press conference on March 6 said, besides Anil Ambani Group, DHFL, Essel Group, Vodafone and ILFS were among the defaulters group stressed Yes Bank crisis. Ambani Group which went bankrupt had received loans worth Rs 12,800 crore from Yes Bank facing financial instability.
Last week, Reliance Group said, its entire borrowings from the Yes Bank were totally safe, “Reliance Group is committed to honouring repayments of all its borrowings from Yes Bank Ltd through its various asset monetisation programmes which are all at advanced stages,” said in a statement.
Moreover, Essel Group, Jet Airways has an unpaid due of Rs 8,400 crore and Rs 550 crore, respectively. However, around 44 associating with 10 large business groups reportedly accounted default of Rs 34,000 crore. There are other companies including Bharat Infra, Cox & Kings, and Dewan Housing Finance Corporation.
Essel Group chairman, Subhash Chandra did not appear before ED on Wednesday, due to ongoing parliamentary session, “Essel Group has never made any transactions with Mr Rana Kapoor or his family or for that matter any private entities controlled by them,” He twitted. Similarly, Naresh Goyal founder of Jet Airways refrained to appear before ED, referring to an ill family member.
The ED accused Kapoor and family and others for indulging in illicit money laundering of Rs 4,300 crore by receiving kickbacks to grant big loans via Yes Bank that later turned to be liability, to be specific it turned to be Non-Performing Assets (NPA) over a period of time.
Last week, speaking to AV, Uttam Agarwal former Yes Bank Director accused current management for the mismanagement. “It’s the failure of governance and current management. Yes Bank’s MD and CEO Mr Ravneet Gill and his team could not manage the show. Unnecessarily the Kapoors are under attack but Gill is solely responsible for the mismanagement. Its game of manipulations, these guys just finished everything,” told to AV.
The ED initiated an investigation on Kapoor and family and other associates after RBI imposed moratorium earlier this month on Yes Bank, restricting the withdrawals limit to Rs 50,000 per transactions.
