Enforcement Directorate seizes Reliance Infra’s 13 bank accounts with ₹54 crore

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has seized ₹54.82 crore belonging to Reliance Infrastructure Limited (R-Infra) under the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA), said the agency on Wednesday (December 10, 2025).

The agency’s Special Task Force (Headquarters) seized 13 bank accounts having a balance of ₹54.82 crore, after its investigation purportedly revealed that R-Infra, through its special purpose vehicles (SPVs), siphoned off public funds from highway construction projects awarded by the National Highways Authority of India.

“Funds were diverted under the guise of sham sub-contracting arrangements to shell companies in Mumbai. These shell entities were set up in a coordinated manner using dummy directors at specific bank branches in Mumbai. These funds were thereafter layered through a network of other shell entities and remitted outside India to the UAE in the guise of import of polished and unpolished diamonds without receipt of any equivalent goods or documentation,” it said.

The UAE entities, to which funds were remitted, had bank accounts in the UAE and Hong Kong. “These entities were found to be controlled by individuals engaged in illegal international ‘hawala’. The shell entities through which these funds were siphoned off are found to be involved in international ‘hawala’ transactions worth more than ₹600 crore,” said the agency.

The alleged diversion of project funds contributed to severe financial stress in the affected SPVs, resulting in bank loans turning into non-performing assets, thereby “causing losses to lenders and jeopardising public financial interests”.