The arrests of Amitabh Jhunjhunwala and Amit Bapna, two of Anil Ambani’s closest aides, mark the sharpest escalation yet in the multi-agency investigation into an alleged ₹40,000-crore banking fraud and money-laundering case. But do they also signal that the long-drawn probe into the once-powerful Anil Dhirubhai Ambani group (ADAG) may finally be moving toward a decisive conclusion?
Consider the sequence. On 17 March 2026, Anil Ambani wrote a seven-page confidential letter to finance minister (FM) Nirmala Sitharaman seeking a one-time settlement of dues and a structured repayment schedule.
The letter, which opened with ‘Jai Shree Krishna’, framed the massive losses suffered by lenders to the group as ‘a pure commercial matter between lenders and borrowers’. It invoked the Supreme Court-approved Sandesara/Sterling Biotech settlement under which the promoters deposited ₹5,100 crore, leading to the quashing of all proceedings, release of attachments, withdrawal of ‘Look Out Circulars’ and ‘Red Corner Notices’ for the entire family and associated companies.
Mr Ambani requested the constitution of a lenders’ committee anchored by State Bank of India (SBI) and Bank of Baroda (BoB) “to crystallise legally outstanding dues, and formulate a structured repayment schedule.” In support, he had cited his undertaking not to leave the country, total repayments of ₹3,44,000 crore (principal ₹2,45,000 crore and interest ₹93,000 crore), personal and family capital infusions exceeding ₹15,000 crore—including ₹9,276 crore into Reliance Communications (RCom) and Reliance Capital (RCap) -- asset monetisations of ₹23,476 crore and government dues owed to the group of approximately ₹1,00,000 crore in regulatory assets and arbitral awards.
Clearly, the government wasn’t convinced. It is no secret that concerted, multi-agency investigations in India are directed by the government. In this case, the ongoing investigation changed gears after his letter and moved from summons and interrogation of Anil Ambani, his wife Tina, his son and dozens of top executives, to the arrests.
The two powerful former executives have been accused in a ₹40,000+-crore banking fraud and money-laundering case. ADAG responded to the arrests by informing stock exchanges that Mr Jhunjhunwala and Mr Bapna were ‘no longer associated’ with it since September 2019. But proceedings in court signalled the opposite.
Amitabh Jhunjhunwala told the judge he was not the ‘actual culprit’ and pointed squarely at Anil Ambani. In connection with a specific email produced by the directorate of enforcement (ED), he argued that all decisions pertaining to the corporate loans under investigation were taken at the instructions of Anil Ambani (referred to as ‘ADA’ in the emails).
While granting a five-day remand, the special court under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) recorded an ‘imminent possibility of involving some other persons’ in the money trail, while noting that an email trail ‘crystallises the role’ of both accused in a ‘pre-conceived and well-planned scheme’ to divert ₹11,500 crore through 36 shell entities with negligible operations. (Read: Anil Ambani Writes to FM Sitharaman for Time-bound Bank Dues Resolution, Proposes Lenders’ Panel)
Mr Jhunjhunwala, who began his career as a fund manager at Kothari Pioneer Mutual Fund, rose to become a key executive in the undivided Reliance group before opting to join ADAG after 2005. A close relative of the late legendary investor, Rakesh Jhunjhunwala, he became group managing director at ADAG and vice-chairman of RCap, making him one of the three most powerful people in the group. After leaving ADAG, he is understood to have set up family offices under the names TAJ Capital Partners and AJ Capital, operating out of Singapore and Dubai. He holds a 10-year UAE Golden Visa; his son Abhinav reportedly runs AJ Capital from Singapore.
Former insiders of the ADA group believe that Mr Jhunjhunwala’s statements in Court were calculated to position himself as an approver for the government. While the agencies have filed a ‘reason to believe’ document as the basis of their actions under PMLA, they will need to pierce layers of shell entities and complicated financial transactions to establish a trail of siphoned funds. This is crucial for the central bureau of investigation (CBI) and ED to build credible evidence to establish their charges and much publicised attachment of group assets. (Read: ED Arrests Anil Ambani's Top Aides Amitabh Jhunjhunwala, Amit Bapna in ₹40,000 Crore Loan Fraud; Assets Worth ₹17,000 Crore Attached)
CBI is examining seven cases involving ₹73,000 crore. It registered a fresh ₹3,750-crore case in April 2026 on a complaint by Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) that it was induced to buy non-convertible debentures (NCDs) of RCom on misleading representations.
Systematic Value Destruction
The systematic destruction of value in the ADA group has been extensively chronicled by Moneylife as well as other publications over the past four years. After the Ambani brothers split in 2005, Anil Ambani inherited a valuable portfolio including telecom, power, infrastructure, finance, media and defence. He soon went on a borrowing spree with the result that the group had a peak valuation of ₹1.7 lakh crore, but liabilities soon crossed ₹1 lakh crore. (Read: A Decade Too Late and Too Big To Nail: Anil Ambani Group Finally Faces Investigation Heat)
One by one, the leading companies were sold at fire-sale prices that were often 40% to 60% below even conservative valuations. Reliance Capital (RCap) was sold for ₹9,650 crore against a liquidation value of ₹13,158 crore and fair value of ₹16,696 crore. Tiny entities, such as Reliance Infrastructure Consulting & Engineers Pvt Ltd and Reliance Big Pvt Ltd, with a combined fair value of ₹7 crore and liquidation value of ₹4 crore, had been able to borrow a massive ₹2,000 crore. Writing for Moneylife, tax expert V Ranganathan asked how could companies with wind turbines and land parcels worth peanuts, borrow thousands of crores? The lenders later recovered a pittance. In 2019, its statutory auditor, Price Waterhouse had resigned citing possible fraud of ₹12,517 crore. (Read: A-nil’s Oasis! With Nil Assets, Anil Ambani Leads a Full Life).
The Supreme Court has directed ED to set up a dedicated SIT (special investigation team) and has kept Mr Ambani, who has publicly declared zero net worth in a UK court in 2020, citing the sale of family jewellery and loans from his mother and son, on a tight leash.
But, unless there is an approver, it is not possible to trace the funds, pierce the layers of shell entities, reach the international transactions in Singapore, Dubai and beyond and establish that the attached assets, including the Pali Hill residence and other properties — are proceeds of siphoning, fraud and crime. Building a watertight case to show that funds from listed companies were diverted to create private assets, requires precise corroboration that only insiders can provide.
The empire is effectively gone. RCom, RCap, Reliance Home Finance, Reliance Power and Reliance Infrastructure (RInfra) — have been delisted, resolved under the bankruptcy law at throwaway prices or reduced to litigation vehicles. What remains are a handful of arbitration awards, a diluted promoter stake in RInfra (acquired by Adani) and the personal holdings that ED is circling.
The real test for India’s enforcement machinery is the return of money. Over 5.5mn (million) small shareholders lost their wealth. Public sector banks (PSBs), mutual funds, insurance companies and pension funds are out of pocket. Employees and vendors have suffered.
Sadly, India has no record of such effective action in the past 50 years or more. It remains to be seen if the government is more serious this time or whether the group strikes a covert deal that allows allegations and litigation to drag on for decades, after which it fizzles out for want of evidence or witnesses.
This case will drag on for years until all ED & CBI officials are dead and then the cases will also die a natural death ! Agar Anil Ambani ko arrest kiya toh Nirmala Sitharaman ki bhi naukri jayegi aur unki ?????? bhi bandh ho jayegi !
Next 72 hours are crucial for Anil Ambani. Friday may see a new twist in the tale, at the SC hearing.. when the SIT submits the report running into over a thousand pages. The 12-14 page summary holds the key (or lock) for Anil Ambani. SIT has to act if SC questions as to why the “approval authorities” remain untouched while those who followed approvals are cooling their heals at Tihar in Delhi summer.
Day 5 remand was over last week, followed by judicial custody till May 2nd.
But there is twist in the tale as CBI wants Amitabh Jhunjhunwala to appear in a Mumbai court before his JC at Rouse Ave Delhi court gets over. Strangely, CBI chose not to wait for 3days and went ahead to take Tihars new Govinda on transit remand to Mumbai, his hometown.
It could be to confront Jhunjhunwala with his stock market guru protege, or for keeping him away before today’s SC hearing.
We can only speculate at this point of time, and the 2 people who might be aware of why this happened will not be open to share the mystery. But some Tihar inmates will miss the Govinda dance numbers and Amitabh bacchan mimicry, they were enjoying for last 5 evenings, which Amitabh Jhunjhunwala apparently had a hidden talent for, as the rumor mills say. Could be he got tired dancing non stop every evening on popular demand
Sometimes in absence of trail of 40,000 crore siphoning, even a $8.3 million trail can serve as clinching evidence. Mapping entire 40,000 crore may take a long time but the evidence of sale of Superior Ink building, 12th street manhattan apartment is easy to find. Especially when approvals are in Punit Garg’s iCloud back up, going back even to 2019, the time Jhunjhunwala’s association with the group ended publically.
Or the reliance infra loans to CLE, which was passing on loans of psu banks as advances to a vendor. The vendor later defaulting and settling it via an arbitration process, concealing its ownership as a potentially linked entity. The old name of CLE is evidence that a decade ago it was a declared promoter group entity , sonata investments. And who owns it isn’t a secret.
Not to forget the return of funds by rinfra to Varde partners spv in Singapore. The money came from Singapore where junior jhunjhunwala operates out of. The manhattan apartment sale proceeds went to Dubai, where Amitabh Jhunjhunwala operates out of.
The smokescreeen of public spat between Amitabh Jhunjhunwala and anil Ambani isn’t easy to execute, when investigators have acccess to other offshore transactions since 2019. If Amitabh is made an approver, will he implicate himself ?
Some evidences are out in the open. A former LIC chairman who sits on RInfra board. Wasn’t he the chairman of LiC when 4500 crore was doled out as NCDs, and CBI is already looking for “unknown public servants and bank officials”. 4500 crore is a fraction of what SBI lent to RCom which was later written off. 2 former SBI chairman’s were also independent directors after retirement on RAAGA companies. CBI is also on hunt for “unknown public servants” in other cases too. Was it a deferred quid pro quo, is extremely difficult to prove, and can be termed purely coincidental or circumstantial
Like the coincidence of Amitabh Jhunjhunwala being in India on the day country’s Vice President suddenly resigning due to health issues. And being there a few days prior too.. but getting stuck a week later when a LoC was issued in his name too. With an arrest and potentially being named as an accused in the chargesheet, the fate of Golden Visa may also take a Tihar like turn for Amitabh Jhunjhunwala. A cause of worry for many; but while leaving Rouse Avenue court after being sent to 5 day remand, Amitabh Jhunjhunwala had a big smile on his face, as if he won the first battle. Even the hardest of criminals don’t come out of the courtroom smiling like Amitabh Jhunjhunwala, as if he just signed a 800 mn $ deal with Steven Speilberg. Which brings us to the question on sources of “personal funds” Anil Ambani brought to buy a stake in Dreamworks. A little digging may reveal that it was Indian psu banks, not Anil Ambani, who ended up paying for the stake acquisition Amitabh Jhunjhunwala signed. And on that day, even Punit Garg was on a US trip.
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But there is twist in the tale as CBI wants Amitabh Jhunjhunwala to appear in a Mumbai court before his JC at Rouse Ave Delhi court gets over. Strangely, CBI chose not to wait for 3days and went ahead to take Tihars new Govinda on transit remand to Mumbai, his hometown.
It could be to confront Jhunjhunwala with his stock market guru protege, or for keeping him away before today’s SC hearing.
We can only speculate at this point of time, and the 2 people who might be aware of why this happened will not be open to share the mystery. But some Tihar inmates will miss the Govinda dance numbers and Amitabh bacchan mimicry, they were enjoying for last 5 evenings, which Amitabh Jhunjhunwala apparently had a hidden talent for, as the rumor mills say. Could be he got tired dancing non stop every evening on popular demand
Or the reliance infra loans to CLE, which was passing on loans of psu banks as advances to a vendor. The vendor later defaulting and settling it via an arbitration process, concealing its ownership as a potentially linked entity. The old name of CLE is evidence that a decade ago it was a declared promoter group entity , sonata investments. And who owns it isn’t a secret.
Not to forget the return of funds by rinfra to Varde partners spv in Singapore. The money came from Singapore where junior jhunjhunwala operates out of. The manhattan apartment sale proceeds went to Dubai, where Amitabh Jhunjhunwala operates out of.
The smokescreeen of public spat between Amitabh Jhunjhunwala and anil Ambani isn’t easy to execute, when investigators have acccess to other offshore transactions since 2019. If Amitabh is made an approver, will he implicate himself ?
Some evidences are out in the open. A former LIC chairman who sits on RInfra board. Wasn’t he the chairman of LiC when 4500 crore was doled out as NCDs, and CBI is already looking for “unknown public servants and bank officials”. 4500 crore is a fraction of what SBI lent to RCom which was later written off. 2 former SBI chairman’s were also independent directors after retirement on RAAGA companies. CBI is also on hunt for “unknown public servants” in other cases too. Was it a deferred quid pro quo, is extremely difficult to prove, and can be termed purely coincidental or circumstantial
Like the coincidence of Amitabh Jhunjhunwala being in India on the day country’s Vice President suddenly resigning due to health issues. And being there a few days prior too.. but getting stuck a week later when a LoC was issued in his name too. With an arrest and potentially being named as an accused in the chargesheet, the fate of Golden Visa may also take a Tihar like turn for Amitabh Jhunjhunwala. A cause of worry for many; but while leaving Rouse Avenue court after being sent to 5 day remand, Amitabh Jhunjhunwala had a big smile on his face, as if he won the first battle. Even the hardest of criminals don’t come out of the courtroom smiling like Amitabh Jhunjhunwala, as if he just signed a 800 mn $ deal with Steven Speilberg. Which brings us to the question on sources of “personal funds” Anil Ambani brought to buy a stake in Dreamworks. A little digging may reveal that it was Indian psu banks, not Anil Ambani, who ended up paying for the stake acquisition Amitabh Jhunjhunwala signed. And on that day, even Punit Garg was on a US trip.