Anil Ambani, former director of Reliance Communications Ltd
| Photo Credit:
MITESH BHUVAD
State Bank of India has decided to report the loan account of Reliance Communications Ltd (RCOM) as “fraud” and to report the name of Anil D Ambani (erstwhile director of the Company) to the RBI, as per the extant RBI guidelines.
In this regard, RCOM has received a letter from SBI (dated June 23, 2025 and received on June 30, 2025), the company informed the exchanges. Last year Canara Bank too had classified RCom’s account with it as fraud, but the decision was stayed by the Bombay High Court. The company’s total indebtedness stood at ₹40,413 crore at the end of March 2025.
SBI marked the RCOM account as a non-performing asset on August 26, 2016. It noted that RCOM, RITL and RTL cumulatively received ₹31,580 crore from banks.
“We have observed two major deviations in respect of loan availed and utilised by RCOM…(i) Loan of ₹250 crore was sanctioned by Dena Bank on 08.02.2017 for the purpose of ‘short-term cash flow mismatch, for repayment of statutory dues, sundry creditors’, but RCOM paid the amount to RCIL (Reliance Communications Infrastructure Ltd) as ICD (inter corporate deposit),” according to the proceedings of the June 13, 2025, meeting of SBI’s Fraud Identification Committee (FIC).
“However, management has claimed that later this amount was used for repayment of ECB instalment availed from BNP-Paribas. Thus loan was not used for the purpose it was availed. It appears that routing of transaction through subsidiary/ associate was made to conceal the source of fund to avoid required regulatory approval in case of ECB loans,” it added.
The second deviation pertained to the ₹248 crore loan sanctioned by IIFCL to RCOM for the purpose of meeting ongoing capital expenditure. FIC noted that RCOM paid ₹63 crore to RITL and ₹77 crore to RIEL for repayment of loans.
But instead of transferring the fund directly to these companies, it was routed through RCIL; reason for that has not been given by management or Anil Ambani.
“These two transactions appear to be misappropriation of funds and breach of trust,” per SBI’s FIC report.
The Company said it is undergoing corporate insolvency resolution process (CIRP) under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 (IBC).
A resolution plan has been approved by the committee of creditors of the company in accordance with IBC and is presently awaiting approval of the National Company Law Tribunal, Mumbai Bench, it added.
The credit facilities/loans referred to in the letter from SBI pertain to the period prior to the CIRP of the company (as identified within the letter), and are required in terms of IBC, to be necessarily resolved as a part of a resolution plan or in liquidation, as the case may be, RCL said.
The company emphasised that during the CIRP, it is inter alia protected from, the institution/ continuation of any suits/ proceedings, including the execution of any judgement, decree or order in any court of law, tribunal, arbitration panel or other authority under IBC.
Immunity against any liability
RCL emphasised that Section 32A of IBC grants protection to a corporate debtor against any liability for an offence committed by the corporate debtor prior to the commencement of its CIRP, as well as from prosecution of any offence in relation thereto, from the date the resolution plan in respect of such corporate debtor has been approved by the NCLT under Section 31 of IBC (if the resolution plan results in the change in the management or control of the corporate debtor in the manner prescribed under Section 32A of the IBC).
To that extent, it may be noted that by virtue of the protection made available under Section 32A of IBC, upon the approval of the resolution plan in respect of the Company by the NCLT, the company shall be deemed to have immunity against any liability for any purported offences committed by the Company prior to the commencement of the CIRP (including any liability which may arise as a result of any unlawful transactions identified in the forensic audit report), it added.
Furthermore, legal advice is being sought on the way forward with respect to this development.
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Published on July 2, 2025
