ED turns down Anil Ambani's plea for virtual appearance

Rejecting industrialist Anil Ambani's request for a virtual appearance in an ongoing FEMA investigation, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has issued fresh summons asking him to appear before the agency on Monday.

Earlier in the day, Ambani's spokesperson said the industrialist had asked the federal agency to allow him to join the proceedings via "virtual means". The ED had called him for questioning on Friday, but he did not appear.

The spokesperson added that Ambani has written to the agency assuring "full co-operation" in the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) probe.


The investigation centres on the Jaipur-Reengus Highway Project, where authorities suspect about ₹100 crore was transferred overseas through illegal channels.

According to Ambani's spokesperson, the FEMA case dates back to 2010 and involved "a purely domestic contract with no foreign exchange component whatsoever".

The statement also said the JR Toll Road project had been fully completed and has been with the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) since 2021.

It added that "Anil D Ambani is not a member of the board of Reliance Infrastructure". He served as a non-executive director between April 2007 and March 2022 and "was never involved in day-to-day management".

Earlier this week, the ED made a third arrest in its money-laundering probe linked to an alleged multi-thousand-crore loan fraud involving the Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani (ADA) Group.