ED seizes 13 bank accounts of Anil Ambani’s Reliance Infra over FEMA violations

ED has frozen multiple Reliance Infrastructure accounts, alleging that NHAI project funds were siphoned to shell companies and illegally routed to the UAE as fake diamond imports, forming part of a Rs.600 cr hawala network

Team PGurus

December 10, 2025

ED has frozen multiple Reliance Infrastructure accounts, alleging that NHAI project funds were siphoned to shell companies and illegally routed to the UAE as fake diamond imports, forming part of a Rs.600 cr hawala network

ED seizes Rs.55 cr from Reliance Infrastructure in hawala-linked FEMA probe

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Wednesday said it has seized more than a dozen bank accounts, holding about Rs.55 crore worth of deposits, of Anil Ambani Group company Reliance Infrastructure as part of a hawala-linked FEMA investigation. The ED in a statement that Reliance Infrastructure Ltd (R-Infra), through its special purpose vehicles (SPVs), siphoned public funds from highway construction projects awarded by the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) and sent them to the UAE illegally.

The investigation pertains to a 2010 tender that was awarded to the company as an EPC (engineering, procurement, and construction) contract to build the JR Toll Road (Jaipur-Reengus highway). The agency said 13 bank accounts having a balance of Rs.54.82 crore of R-Infra have been seized for “contravention” of the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA). R-Infra said in a regulatory filing on Wednesday that it has received an order from the ED “whereby it has placed a lien in the Company’s bank accounts for Rs.77.86 crore in relation to alleged violations under FEMA”.

The ED had summoned Anil Ambani (66) for questioning in this case last month, but he did not depose, saying he could only make a “virtual appearance”. It was not clear if the agency called him again. A statement issued by Ambani’s spokesperson last month said this was “a purely domestic contract with no foreign exchange component involved whatsoever”. “The JR Toll Road has been fully completed and, from 2021 onwards, has been with the NHAI,” the statement had said.

Describing the alleged fraud, the ED said funds were diverted under the guise of sham sub-contracting arrangements to shell companies in Mumbai, and these entities were set up in a coordinated manner using dummy directors at specific bank branches in Mumbai. These funds, according to the agency, were “layered” through a network of other shell entities and remitted to the UAE in the guise of import of polished and unpolished diamonds without receipt of any equivalent goods or documentation.

The UAE entities to which funds were remitted had bank accounts in both the UAE and Hong Kong. These entities were found to be controlled by individuals engaged in international hawala transactions, it said. “The shell entities through which these funds were siphoned are found to be involved in international hawala transactions worth more than Rs.600 crore,” the ED said. This diversion of the project funds led to “severe” financial stress in the affected SPVs, resulting in bank loans turning into non-performing assets (NPAs), thereby causing losses to lenders and jeopardising public financial interests, it said.

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