Shares of Anil Ambani’s Reliance Power and Reliance Infra tanked on Monday’s trading session after Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) obtained a sanction to proceed against Yes Bank co-founder Rana Kapoor in a case pertaining to alleged fraudulent transactions between the bank and two Anil Dhirubhai Ambani group companies. Reliance Power fell by 2% and is currently trading at 37 Rs, and Reliance Infra fell by 3% and is trading at Rs.160. CBI had recently submitted a chargesheet against Kapoor, Anil Ambani and others for allegedly causing loss to the bank to the tune of Rs 2796.77 crore. The agency while submitting the chargesheet had mentioned that it was yet to obtain prosecution sanction to proceed against Kapoor. Months later, as the court is yet to take cognisance of the chargesheet submitted by CBI, the agency submitted an application for the prosecution sanction against Rana along with other documents before the court.The court is likely to hear prosecution on cognisance of the chargesheet on December 12. In the meanwhile, the defence lawyers have also sought permission for inspection of the chargesheet before the hearing on the cognisance.
CBI had in September submitted a chargesheet against Kapoor, his wife Bindu, daughters Radha and Roshini, Anil Ambani and eight other firms, in connection with the alleged fraudulent transactions of Anil Ambani's Group Companies – Reliance Commercial Finance Ltd (RCFL) and RHFL – with Yes Bank and the companies owned by Rana Kapoor’s wife and daughters. The case was registered for causing loss to the bank to the tune of Rs2,796.77 crore, as the investments made in ADA group could not be recovered.CBI had claimed that during 2017-2019, Yes Bank had invested Rs2,965 crore and Rs2,045 crore through subscription of non-convertible debentures (NCDs) and commercial papers (CPs) of RHFL and RCFL respectively. Of the total amount, Rs3,337.5 crore turned into non performing investment (NPI) by December 2019, it said.The bank could not recover the entire NPI from the securities against these investments, and suffered a loss of Rs2,796.77 crore, the charge sheet claimed.The agency has alleged that the bank under Rana Kapoor had made investment in Ambani group firms was out of the quid-pro-quo arrangement for loans granted by ADA group firms to the firms owned by Kapoor's family members.
Both Reliance Power and Reliance Infrastructure issued public statements on July 24 in response to media reports and investor concerns, clarifying that the ongoing probe has no connection to their current business operations. "The said actions have absolutely no impact on the business operations, financial performance, shareholders, employees, or any other stakeholders of Reliance Infrastructure," said the company, distancing itself from Reliance Communications (RCOM) and Reliance Home Finance (RHFL)-entities at the centre of the investigation. Reliance Power issued a similar statement, noting that Anil Ambani is not on the board and that the company has no business or financial linkage to RCOM or RHFL.