Supreme Court issues fresh notice to ADAG on plea alleging massive banking fraud; seeks status report from CBI, ED

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday issued fresh notices to Anil Ambani and the Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group (ADAG) on a plea seeking a court-monitored probe into alleged massive banking and corporate fraud involving the firm and its group companies.

The top court clarified that it was granting the last opportunity to Anil Ambani and the ADAG to appear and file their responses in the case.

A bench of Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi took up the plea filed by former Union Secretary E A S Sarma, through advocates Prashant Bhushan and Pranav Sachdeva alleging systematic diversion of public funds, fabrication of financial statements and institutional complicity across multiple entities of the Anil Ambani–led Reliance ADAG Group.

The court had previously on November 18, 2025 issued notice to the Centre, Central Bureau of Investigation, Enforcement Directorate, Anil Ambani and others on the plea.

Considering the matter, the bench directed both the CBI and the ED to file respective status reports with respect to the ongoing investigations in a sealed cover.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, for the central agencies, said the accused cannot know the contents of these reports, and it has to be in a sealed cover, otherwise the accused would come to know.

The court then issued fresh notices to Anil Ambani and the Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group (ADAG).

The bench asked the Bombay High Court's registrar general to ensure service of notices on Anil Ambani and the ADAG and file a compliance report.

The matter was fixed for further hearing after 10 days.

In his petition, Sarma stated that the FIR registered by the CBI on August 21, 2025 and the connected ED proceedings covered only a fraction of the alleged wrongdoing, and deliberately excluded the role of bank officials, public servants and regulators despite detailed forensic audits and independent reports pointing to widespread fraud.

The petition claimed, RCom and its subsidiaries - Reliance Infratel and Reliance Telecom – had received loans amounting to Rs 31,580 crore between 2013 and 2017 from a consortium of banks led by State Bank of India.

A forensic audit commissioned by SBI allegedly revealed substantial diversion of funds, including thousands of crores used to repay unrelated loans, transfers to related parties, investments in mutual funds and fixed deposits that were immediately liquidated, and complex circular routing of money to disguise evergreening of loans, it claimed.

Despite material indicating frauds aggregating to more than Rs 20,000 crore and searches conducted across over 35 premises, no arrest has been made, no asset has been seized and no account has been frozen, indicating difficulty on part of the investigating agencies and necessitating judicial supervision, Sarma said.