(Image Source: PTI)
The CBI has booked Jai Anmol Anil Ambani, the son of industrialist Anil Ambani, for allegedly misusing Rs 228 crore borrowed from Union Bank of India. It’s the first time the central agency has directly filed a criminal case against the younger Ambani.
The case also involves Reliance Home Finance Limited and a former director of the company. According to Union Bank, the firm diverted the borrowed money for purposes that were never approved in the original loan agreement.
Where Did the Money Go
Union Bank lent Rs 450 crore to Reliance Home Finance with specific conditions attached. The company was supposed to repay on time, maintain proper financial records, and make sure all income went through the bank account. None of that happened. By September 2019, the account had turned into a bad loan.
When forensic auditors examined the company’s accounts between 2016 and 2019, they found something suspicious. The borrowed funds had moved through deals with related companies and ended up being used for things the bank never approved. The bank now says this amounts to criminal misuse of funds and breach of trust.
This Isn’t New Territory
This isn’t the first time Jai Anmol has attracted regulatory attention. The CBI was already looking into him regarding the Yes Bank mess where roughly Rs 2,796 crore went missing. During that investigation, they found that he’d asked fund managers at Reliance Nippon Mutual Fund to keep him posted about any investment above Rs 50 crore. His office took back that email when questioned, but the CBI used it to show he was meddling in fund operations.
Even the Japanese company that partnered with Reliance Nippon Mutual Fund formally objected to this kind of interference. It took complaints from them to get the situation sorted out.
The Anil Ambani Problem Keeps Growing
His father, Anil Ambani, has his own legal headaches piling up. Just four months back, the CBI raided his home as part of an Investigation into roughly Rs 3,000 crore that went missing during the Reliance Communications bankruptcy process. The SEBI already banned him from the stock market for five years back in 2024 and fined him for his role in the Reliance Home Finance fund diversion.
The Enforcement Directorate has seized property and assets worth Rs 1,120 crore that belong to the group in relation to both the Yes Bank and Reliance Home Finance cases.
What Actually Happens Now
The CBI will interview the accused people, go through financial papers, and look at emails and messages to figure out if funds were intentionally moved somewhere they shouldn’t have. This turns what might have looked like a business deal gone wrong into a potential criminal matter.
For Reliance Home Finance, the damage goes beyond the numbers. The company was created to help regular Indians get home loans. Instead, it became a tool for moving money out of the system while customers and the bank took losses.
The whole situation also shows how many things broke down before this got caught. It shouldn’t have taken a specialist audit to find fraud. A foreign partner had to complain before anyone listened. The bank had to go to the CBI itself to get action.
For Anil Ambani and his business empire, the legal problems just got much harder to manage. The investigation will take years to finish, but the damage to reputation is already done. Investors and lenders are asking tough questions about who really controls these companies and whether anyone is actually watching what promoters do with funds.
The whole thing will probably play out in courts for a long time, but Reliance’s ability to raise money and grow operations is already taking hits.
