Supreme Court Orders Centre to Respond to Probe into ₹20,000 Crore Reliance Communications Bank Fraud

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{ "title": "Supreme Court Orders Centre to Respond to Probe into ₹20,000 Crore Reliance Communications Bank Fraud", "article": "The Supreme Court has issued a notice to the Centre, seeking its response on a court-monitored probe into allegations of large-scale bank fraud involving Reliance Communications and its former promoter Anil Ambani. The probe, already being conducted by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and Enforcement Directorate (ED), has been criticized for not examining the role of bank officials who allegedly knew about the fraud in 2020 but waited five years to register a case. Retired bureaucrat EAS Sarma, who filed the petition, claims that the banks colluded with the companies facing probe. The petition alleges that the banks delayed registering a case, despite having information about the fraud, which indicates involvement of bank officials and other public servants. The case involves allegations of diversion of funds, fictitious transactions, and use of shell companies, resulting in a loss of over ₹20,000 crore. The court has agreed to hear the matter after three weeks and has asked the CBI and ED to submit a status report on the investigation conducted so far. The petition seeks the constitution of a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to conduct a thorough, impartial, and time-bound investigation into the material produced by the petitioner. The case dates back to 2013 when eight banks, including State Bank of India (SBI), gave loans worth ₹31,580 crore to Reliance Communications Limited (RCOM), Reliance Infratel Limited, and Telecom Limited. The first information report (FIR) was filed on August 21, alleging criminal conspiracy, cheating, and criminal breach of trust by RCOM and other unknown public servants and individuals, resulting in a loss of ₹2,929.05 crores."