Indian businessman Anil Ambani has offered a settlement plan to repay bank dues in regards to the Reliance Communications fraud case in a staggered way, news agency Bloomberg reported on Monday.
Ambani's proposal comes even as the Supreme Court raised an alarm for delays in the on-going investigation into the Reliance group chairman and his assets.
The SC called reluctance shown by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) “unacceptable" while hearing a PIL related to alleged bank fraud.
As part of his arrangement to repay dues owed to lenders, Ambani, through his lawyer Mukul Rohatgi, has offered holding discussions with banks to achieve that incentive, the report stated.
“I'm not opposing the investigation,” Rohatgi told the Supreme Court during a hearing related to the money-laundering case. He said banks are refusing to engage on the repayment proposal due to the ongoing probe.
To which the Chief Justice of India, who was heading the bench, said the court has not prohibited anyone from holding talks.
However, the Solicitor General of India, representing federal investigative agencies probing Ambani's companies, was against the proposal, saying repayment was not an adequate way settle a criminal case.
The court reviewed the status of the investigation and will hear the case again in four weeks.
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Earlier Warnings
The apex court had earlier noted that ED and CBI had been sluggish with their probes and said that it now expects them to conduct a fair investigation. The court had also directed the agencies to inform it about the progress of their investigation in the matter periodically.
The ED had initiated its investigation in the case last year, following a CBI FIR that named Anil Ambani, RCom, and others on charges of fraud, conspiracy, and corruption.
The focus of the probe is RCom and its affiliates, which had taken loans totaling more than Rs 40,000 crore from Indian and foreign banks between 2010 and 2012. Five of these accounts have since been declared fraudulent by the lending banks.
The initiation of the probe was began after FIR was first registered on a complaint by the SBI, and the scope was broadened cover similar complaints by other banks like Bank of Maharashtra, Bank of Baroda, and Bank of India, the Supreme Court noted in CBI's status report.
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