ED issues lookout notice against Anil Ambani in Rs 3,000-crore loan fraud case

With this, Anil Ambani cannot travel outside India without court permission.

A lookout circular is issued to prevent individuals from leaving the country to evade prosecution. It is circulated to all entry and exit points, including airports and seaports, and officials are alerted to detain individuals against whom such notices are issued if they attempt to leave the country.

This comes after a series of raids on his business entities, allegations of fraud against his firms, and a summons issued by a federal agency.

According to a preliminary probe by the ED, companies linked to Anil Ambani engaged in a carefully designed scheme to divert public funds and mislead financial institutions.

This reportedly involved illegal diversion of loans worth around Rs 3,000 crore from Yes Bank between 2017 and 2019.

The agency had found that the promoters of the bank had also received payments just before the loans were sanctioned, indicating a quid pro quo arrangement.

The ED conducted raids at over 50 firms connected to the case on July 24 and continued them for at least three days. The raids were conducted under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.

Two group companies, Reliance Power and Reliance Infrastructure, had informed the stock exchanges that while they acknowledge the action taken against them, the raids had "absolutely no impact" on their business operations, financial performance, shareholders, employees, or any other stakeholders.

"The media reports appear to pertain to allegations concerning transactions of Reliance Communications Limited (RCOM) or Reliance Home Finance Limited (RHFL) which are over 10 years old," the companies had said.