Mumbai, A local court on Wednesday remanded Amitabh Jhunjhunwala, former Group MD of Anil Ambani-led Reliance Communications, in the custody of the CBI till June 5 in an alleged bank loan fraud case.
Jhunjhunwala was produced before special CBI court judge J P Darekar. He had been arrested on Monday and placed in judicial custody.
The CBI, represented by special public prosecutors A Limosin and Jitendra Sharma, sought his custody for detailed investigation.
Jhunjhunwala was earlier lodged in the Tihar Central Jail in Delhi in judicial custody in a related money laundering case being probed by the Enforcement Directorate.
He was brought to Mumbai on Monday on a production warrant, and after completing the formalities, the CBI arrested him.
As per the probe agency, Jhunjhunwala, as group Managing Director of Reliance Communications, a Reliance ADAG firm, controlled key aspects of the company’s functioning including corporate finance, banking and utilization of funds.
Loan funds received from banks were utilized as per his instructions, the CBI alleged, adding that misuse of these funds caused the banks wrongful losses.
The agency last week filed its first charge sheet in the case against 16 persons, but did not name Jhunjhunwala.
The case was registered on a complaint filed by the State Bank of India against Reliance Communications and Anil Ambani for allegedly causing a loss of Rs 2,929.05 crore to the bank.
A consortium of 11 banks led by SBI had sanctioned ‘Rupee Term Loans’ to Reliance Communications. As per the FIR, the total exposure amounted to Rs 19,694.33 crore and involved 17 Public Sector Banks.
