A Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Shree Chandrashekhar and Justice Gautam A. Ankhad allowed appeals filed by Bank of Baroda, IDBI Bank, Indian Overseas Bank, and forensic auditor BDO India LLP. The bench described the single-judge order as “perverse,” “illegal,” and based on flawed assumptions, including retrospective application of the RBI’s 2024 Master Directions on fraud risk management.

The dispute stems from a forensic audit report dated October 15, 2020, prepared by BDO India LLP on Reliance Communications Ltd (RCOM) and its group entities. The report alleged diversion of loan funds amounting to over ₹31,580 crore, including payments to related parties and misuse of funds. Banks had relied on this to issue show-cause notices and classify accounts as fraud under the RBI’s earlier 2016 Master Directions.

In December 2025, a single-judge bench had granted interim relief to Ambani, staying all actions by the banks on grounds that the report was invalid—citing lack of qualification by the signatory (not a registered Chartered Accountant), absence of UDIN, and non-compliance with the 2024 directions’ Footnote-14 requiring audits by qualified professionals under relevant statutes.

The Division Bench overturned this, ruling that:

• The 2024 RBI Master Directions operate prospectively and do not invalidate actions taken under the 2016 guidelines.
• The 2016 directions permitted banks to engage external auditors or forensic experts (no mandatory requirement for a practicing ICAI-registered CA).
• Ambani’s challenge was delayed; he had access to the report since 2020–2021 but raised key objections only later.
• No prima facie case, balance of convenience, or irreparable injury warranted the stay, which could undermine the banking system’s fraud detection framework.

The court lifted the stay, allowing the banks to continue show-cause proceedings, fraud declarations, and related actions. The suits filed by Ambani challenging the report and notices remain pending but without interim protection.

This ruling comes amid parallel probes by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) into alleged money laundering linked to the same Reliance Group entities (RCOM, Reliance Home Finance Ltd, Reliance Commercial Finance Ltd, and others). The ED has attached assets worth over ₹12,000 crore cumulatively since late 2025, including fresh attachments of ₹1,885 crore in January 2026. Earlier tranches (November 2025 onwards) included high-profile properties such as Ambani’s family residence in Mumbai’s Pali Hill, the Reliance Centre in Delhi, and multiple residential/commercial holdings across cities like Mumbai, Delhi, Noida, Pune, Hyderabad, and Chennai. These attachments, under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), stem from allegations of fraudulent diversion of public funds and are separate from the RBI-led fraud classification process.

Ambani and his group companies have consistently denied wrongdoing. The ED actions aim to preserve assets pending further investigation, while the banks’ proceedings could lead to broader restrictions on credit access and reputational consequences.

The Bombay High Court emphasized that public interest in protecting banking funds outweighs interim restraint in such cases.

Also Read: ED Attaches ₹1,885 Crore Assets of Anil Ambani Group, Total Seizures Cross ₹12,000 Crore in Bank Fraud Cases

The post Bombay High Court Overturns Interim Stay: Banks Can Proceed with Fraud Tagging Against Anil Ambani appeared first on Square Feat India.

The restitution follows an order dated December 12, 2025, passed by the Recovery Officer, Debts Recovery Tribunal-I (DRT), Chennai, which directed the release of funds realised from the sale of shares that were earlier attached and later restituted to State Bank of India (SBI) by the ED. The amount will now be transferred to the Official Liquidator for distribution among former Kingfisher Airlines employees.

ED Investigation and Asset Attachment

The ED initiated its investigation based on multiple FIRs registered by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) against Kingfisher Airlines, its promoter Vijay Mallya, and associated entities for offences including bank fraud and criminal conspiracy, which are scheduled offences under the PMLA.

The probe revealed large-scale diversion and siphoning of loan funds, leading to the attachment of several movable and immovable properties belonging to Kingfisher Airlines, Vijay Mallya, United Breweries Holdings Ltd., and related entities. Vijay Mallya was subsequently declared a Fugitive Economic Offender on January 5, 2019, under the Fugitive Economic Offenders Act, 2018.

₹14,132 Crore Assets Already Restituted to SBI

According to the ED, assets worth ₹14,132 crore have already been restituted to SBI under Section 8(8) of the PMLA, forming the asset pool from which the present restitution to employees has been made possible.

In a rare move, SBI agreed to accord priority to workmen dues over its own secured creditor claims. Acting upon ED’s facilitation, SBI filed Interlocutory Application No. 01 of 2025 before the DRT, offering the restituted assets for settlement of employee dues. This led to the DRT directing the Official Liquidator to disburse ₹311.67 crore to former employees of Kingfisher Airlines.

Focus on Victim-Centric Recovery

The ED stated that it proactively coordinated with all stakeholders, including senior officials of SBI, to ensure that the long-pending claims of employees were settled. The restitution, the agency said, underscores its commitment not only to depriving economic offenders of proceeds of crime, but also to restoring such proceeds to rightful stakeholders, especially affected workers.

For thousands of former Kingfisher Airlines employees who had been awaiting salary and statutory dues for over a decade, the development marks a long-overdue financial and moral victory.

Also Read: Kingfisher House in Mumbai Sold for Rs 52.25 Crore

The post Kingfisher Airlines Employees to Receive ₹311.67 Crore as ED Facilitates Long-Pending Dues appeared first on Square Feat India.

The latest action in the DHFL case, dated September 5, 2025, targets assets linked to former promoters Kapil Wadhawan and Dheeraj Wadhawan. The attached properties include 154 flats and the receivables pertaining to another 20 flats located in Mumbai. This brings the total value of attachments in the DHFL investigation to ₹256.23 crore.

The ED’s probe is based on a CBI FIR filed against DHFL and the Wadhawan brothers for allegedly orchestrating a criminal conspiracy to defraud a consortium of 17 banks led by Union Bank of India. Investigations revealed that the accused siphoned off and misappropriated huge sums of bank loans by falsifying DHFL’s books. The agency also found that during 2017-18, the Wadhawans allegedly diverted funds to rig the price and trading volumes of DHFL’s publicly listed stock.

In a parallel move against their relatives, Rakesh and Sarang Wadhawan of Housing Development and Infrastructure Ltd. (HDIL), the ED has exposed another layer of the Punjab & Maharashtra Co-operative (PMC) Bank scam. The agency filed its third supplementary prosecution complaint (chargesheet) on June 4, 2025, which the Special PMLA Court took cognizance of on July 25, 2025.

This new complaint details how the promoters of HDIL allegedly laundered money from the fraudulent bank loans to acquire agricultural lands in Maharashtra’s Sindhudurg District. The land was acquired through a network of benamidars, allegedly led by an individual named Mukesh Khadpe, for a proposed Vijaydurg Port Project that was never executed. The ED has already attached these land parcels and has now requested their confiscation in the latest complaint.

The core of the PMC Bank scam involved HDIL and its group companies fraudulently obtaining Overdraft (OD) loans from the bank without sufficient documentation or mortgages. To prevent these loans from being classified as Non-Performing Assets (NPAs), bank officials colluded with the promoters, falsifying records by replacing 44 genuine NPA accounts of the HDIL group with 21,049 fictitious loan accounts to deceive the Reserve Bank of India and the bank’s depositors. To date, the ED has attached assets worth over ₹772 crore in the PMC Bank case.

With investigations progressing in both high-profile cases, the ED’s coordinated actions signal a tightening noose on the perpetrators of these massive financial frauds that have shaken the country’s banking and real estate sectors.

Also Read: Indiabulls takes possession of Villas, flats connected to Wadhawans in Mumbai

The post Wadhawans Under Fire: ED’s Twin Strike Attaches ₹186 Cr in DHFL Fraud, Files New Charges in PMC Bank Scam appeared first on Square Feat India.