Mumbai, Sep 30 (IANS) The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Tuesday carried out searches at six premises in Indore and Mumbai in connection with a probe into alleged illegal remittances abroad by Reliance Infrastructure under the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA).
According to reports, ED teams also raided the offices and homes of Indore-based Path India Group, a company under scrutiny for irregularities in toll road projects and other ventures.
A team of officials in multiple vehicles reached the firm’s headquarters at 76 Mal Road in Mhow and the residences of its directors.
Nitin Agarwal is the Managing Director of Path India Group, while Nipun Agarwal, Saksham Agarwal, Niti Agarwal, and Santosh Agarwal serve as directors.
Ashish Agarwal and Aditya Upadhyay are listed as independent directors. Niti Agarwal, one of the directors, is also co-owner of the Mumbai team in the Indian Street Premier League (ISPL) alongside actor Amitabh Bachchan.
The raids are understood to be part of a wider investigation into bank loan scams linked to Anil Ambani.
Investigators believe that several construction work agreements were signed between Reliance Group companies and the Path Group, under which large sums of money may have been moved around.
The action comes against the backdrop of earlier raids on Ambani-linked entities. In August, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) conducted searches at premises connected to Reliance Communications (RCOM) and its promoter Anil Ambani, in a case involving alleged fraud of over Rs 2,000 crore against the State Bank of India.
The bank had already classified RCOM and Ambani as “fraud” after detecting diversion of loans through a complex web of transactions across group companies.
Earlier this month, Anil Ambani was also questioned for several hours by the ED in a separate Rs 17,000 crore loan fraud probe.
The agency is expected to summon him again with supporting documents.
With Tuesday’s raids, the ED has widened its investigation into related entities, suspecting that funds were diverted through intermediary agreements to siphon off money from bank loans.
Officials seized documents, financial records and digital evidence during the searches.
–IANS
pk
