The Enforcement Directorate on Thursday raided 35-odd premises in Mumbai and Delhi linked to industrialist Anil Ambani in connection with an alleged ₹3,000-crore loan fraud involving companies of the Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group and Yes Bank, agency sources said.

They said the raids were part of a money-laundering probe based on two FIRs filed by the CBI in September 2022. The cases involve loans provided by Yes Bank to Reliance Home Finance Ltd (RHFL) and Reliance Commercial Finance Ltd.

Officials said the ED was investigating possible bribery behind the bank loans.

They said more than 35 premises of 50 companies and the premises of 25 individuals were raided.

A few days ago, junior finance minister Pankaj Chaudhary had referred to a “fraud” case against an Anil Ambani group company. Chaudhary told Parliament that the State Bank of India had classified Reliance Communications and promoter-director Anil Ambani as “fraud” in accordance with RBI guidelines and was in the process of lodging a CBI complaint.

Reliance Power and Reliance Infrastructure issued statements saying the “actions have absolutely no impact on the business operations, financial performance, shareholders, employees, or any other stakeholders” of the two companies.

Both companies said they were “separate and independent listed” entities “with no business or financial linkage to RCOM or RHFL”.

The ED registered the money-laundering case on the basis of the CBI FIRs and reports shared by the National Housing Bank, market regulator Sebi and the National Financial Reporting Authority, sources said.

“Both CBI FIRs name former Yes Bank chairman Rana Kapoor,” an ED official said.

“A preliminary probe by the ED has revealed a well-planned scheme to divert or siphon off public money by cheating banks, shareholders, investors and other public institutions. Several bank officials including Rana Kapoor are also under the scanner.”

The official added: “The probe has revealed an illegal loan diversion of around ₹3,000 crore from Yes Bank between 2017 and 2019. It has been found that just before the loan was granted, the Yes Bank promoters received money in their other concerns.

“The agency is investigating this nexus of ‘bribe’ and loan and also allegations of gross violations in Yes Bank loan approvals to Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group companies, including back-dated credit approval memorandums, and investments proposed without any due diligence or credit analysis.

“In violation of the loan terms, these loans were allegedly further diverted to many group companies and shell companies.”

In 2023, the ED had questioned Anil Ambani in connection with alleged foreign exchange violations that surfaced during the IT department’s investigations into his purportedly undeclared offshore assets, amounting to ₹800 crore.